Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Senators who support abortion rights sought assurance that the nominee’s respect for stare decisis (Latin for “to stand by things decided,” that is, conformity to legal precedent) meant he would not upset the status quo in abortion law. And some “NeverTrump” senators were in the midst of battles with the president that occasionally spilled over into their work in Congress.
Most of the anxiety on the left concerned abortion and other culture-war issues. The problem was not with Kavanaugh personally as much as the fact that he would replace a pivotal justice. In their haste to respond to the nomination, the organizers of the Women’s March accidentally issued a statement opposing “Trump’s nomination of XX to the Supreme Court.”17 Democracy for America’s press release, apparently drafted with Amy Barrett in mind, referred to Kavanaugh as “she.”18 Protesters at the Supreme Court avoided the embarrassing “Mad Libs” signs—“#Stop _________”—they had used when Gorsuch was nominated.19 This time they had multiple printed versions ready to go, but the occasional “#StopKethledge” or “#StopHardiman” sign showed up in television shots of the crowd.20 These lapses confirmed what everyone already knew—to the left, it didn’t matter whom Trump nominated.
As the announcement of Kavanaugh’s nomination was made, a large crowd gathered outside the Supreme Court in a protest organized by the Center for American Progress (CAP), funded by George Soros and founded by John Podesta, a close aide to Barack Obama and the Clintons. As they waited to find out who it was, they chanted “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! The patriarchy has got to go!”21 As soon as Trump’s nominee was announced, CAP’s president, the longtime Clinton insider Neera Tanden, shouted to the crowd that Kavanaugh was an “extremist who will damage our country for decades. . . . We must ensure that we defeat Brett Kavanaugh. All our rights are at stake. Roe v. Wade. Health care. Democracy itself.”22
Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Tina Smith of Minnesota also spoke. Their rhetoric was apocalyptic. Kavanaugh would “pave a path to tyranny,” proclaimed Merkley. Gillibrand said that to keep Brett Kavanaugh from becoming justice, it would take “all of us fighting as hard and as long as we can.” Elizabeth Warren warned, “I’m not going to sugarcoat this. We are in the fight of our lives.”
The progressive groups represented at that night’s anti-Kavanaugh protest included the Service Employees International Union, Planned Parenthood, People for the American Way, the National Women’s Law Center, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National LGBTQ Task Force, Lambda Legal, the Constitutional Accountability Center, the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, End Citizens United, Giffords, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Earthjustice, Generation Progress, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
“I have some news for you, Mr. President! We are every bit as determined to block Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination as you are to realize your anti-woman, anti-civil rights, homophobic agenda,” said Debra Ness of the National Partnership for Women and Families. “This will be the fight of our lives and we will win.” Ilyse Hogue of NARAL Pro-Choice America announced a fifty-state day of action to oppose Kavanaugh, with eighty organizations participating.
Several speakers, such as Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Ben Wikler of MoveOn, identified Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, both of whom support abortion rights, as the senators they would press to vote against Kavanaugh. They were off to a rough start with Collins, who felt that some of her colleagues and liberal activists were whipping people into a frenzy. She was determined to fulfill her constitutional duty of “advice and consent” and approach the nomination with an open mind.
The rally was raucous. The crowd grew. Reporters were jostled. For large events, Supreme Court police typically put up barriers to ensure the safety of both protesters and media. They didn’t expect the crowds to be as big or as boisterous as they were.
Shannon Bream, a longtime Supreme Court correspondent, had planned to host her eleven o’clock television show Fox News Night from the Supreme Court, but at 9:31 p.m. she tweeted, “Very few times I’ve felt threatened while out in the field. The mood here tonight is very volatile. Law enforcement appears to be closing down 1st Street in front of SCOTUS.”23 Minutes later she announced that the production team was