not only the Gorsuch nomination but dozens of other federal court nominations, and although they had no advance notice of Kennedy’s retirement, they were prepared for it. They had refreshed the list months earlier in anticipation of a Supreme Court vacancy. Deputies had constantly updated files of prospective nominees, all of whom had already been vetted. Within a day of Kennedy’s announcement, word leaked that two of his former clerks, Judge Ray Kethledge of the Sixth Circuit and Kavanaugh, were the front-runners for the open seat, while others said the top two were really Kavanaugh and Barrett.
The press soon became a problem for Kavanaugh, staking out his house and following him everywhere. At the suggestion of his colleagues on the court of appeals, including a cordial Merrick Garland, he was eventually assigned a security detail, including a car with federal marshals to drive him around.
In his twelve years on the D.C. Circuit, Judge Kavanaugh had authored more than three hundred opinions, always guided by the text and original meaning of the Constitution. He was known as a uniquely effective jurist, and the Supreme Court had adopted his reasoning in at least thirteen decisions.11
Despite his illustrious pedigree—Yale College and Law School—he was down to earth and affable. The fit, fifty-three-year-old, Irish-American Catholic with a full head of hair and a quick sense of humor was well liked by his colleagues and friends and always had been.
He was on the president’s list of potential nominees by the time rumors of Kennedy’s retirement began to circulate, but he had not been given any advance warning by the justice. Nevertheless, he had put off finalizing his family’s vacation plans until the end of the Supreme Court term, just in case. When the final session ended with no retirement announcement, he texted his wife, Ashley, to go ahead and make summer plans with their daughters, Margaret and Liza. By the time he returned from lunch, McGahn had called to tell him the news. Vacation planning would have to wait; the White House counsel wanted to interview him in his chambers on Friday.
McGahn already knew Kavanaugh, who had administered his oath of office for the Federal Election Commission in 2008. McGahn was exceedingly familiar with his judicial philosophy, having pored over his opinions. The interview that Friday was not about his opinions but about any potentially embarrassing information the White House needed to know before deciding. Known as an “SDR” review—short for sex, drugs, and rock and roll—this kind of interview became common after the failed Supreme Court nomination in 1987 of Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the D.C. Circuit, who was forced to withdraw after reports emerged that he’d smoked marijuana with some of his students while a professor at Harvard. Before Anthony Kennedy was nominated for the same seat, he was confronted with hundreds of embarrassing questions about when he’d first had sex, with how many different women, and whether any pregnancies had resulted. He was asked about sexually transmitted diseases, aberrant sexual activities, drug use, drunk driving, and even animal abuse.12
Kavanaugh’s interview with McGahn went well, but he knew it would ultimately be President Trump’s decision. He’d had an up-close view of the Supreme Court selection process when he served as White House staff secretary under President George W. Bush, seeing how judicial advisors would narrow down a list of contenders before presenting the finalists to the president so that he could take their measure. He wasn’t entirely sure Trump would like him.
A D.C. native who had worked closely with President Bush, Kavanaugh was not what the anti-establishment Trump was looking for. The Bush family had publicly opposed Trump, and the disdain had been mutual. Trump defeated former Florida governor Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican presidential race by brutally criticizing his brother George’s record as president. Kavanaugh’s name hadn’t even appeared on Trump’s initial lists of prospective Supreme Court nominees.
At the same time, Kavanaugh had a broad network of friends and allies—from federal judges to conservative media stars to his family dry cleaner—who could vouch for his ability and character and thought he should not just be on the list but at the top. His name had been openly discussed in major media as the most likely Republican nominee for the Court since at least 2012.13 His lengthy record as a conservative appellate judge was well known and widely respected.
Kavanaugh had a particularly loyal network of former clerks. He had hired twenty-five women and twenty-three men as law clerks in his dozen years