President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh voted 93 percent of the time with his colleague Judge Merrick Garland, who President Obama unsuccessfully nominated to the Supreme Court in 2016, when they both heard cases together on a federal appeals court in D.C.
Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, pointed out the statistics during Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing Wednesday, dismissing some cries from Democrats that Judge Kavanaugh is out of the mainstream and Mr. Obama’s pick for the high court should have been given a hearing and a vote.
Both nominees served together on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Judge Garland’s nomination expired when Mr. Trump took office and nominated Justice Neil M. Gorsuch instead for the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
According to Mr. Cruz, Judge Garland joined 27 out of 28 opinions written by Judge Kavanaugh, while Judge Kavanaugh joined 28 out of 30 of Judge Garland’s rulings.
Judge Kavanaugh said their decisions aligned because both of them approach the law as written without interjecting personal preferences.
“I think we are trying hard to find common ground and as I’ve said before, he is a great judge,” Judge Kavanaugh said. “Those statistics reflect the reality of how judges go about their business.”
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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