[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 128 (Monday, July 30, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5442-S5443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NOMINATION OF BRITT GRANT

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on Britt Grant, the new nominee for the 
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals--Britt Grant, throughout her career, 
has expressed views far outside the mainstream. When you read this 
list, you will say: How did they come up with someone so on the fringe? 
She is not someone who is a mainstream conservative, but way out there.
  As solicitor general, she defended a law that made it illegal for 
doctors to perform an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and assisted 
on an amicus brief arguing that defining marriage as between a man and 
a woman does not violate the Constitution's guarantee of equal 
protection.
  She worked on a brief for the Supreme Court that defended a Georgia 
prosecutor's decision to strike Black jurors based on their race. She 
led Georgia's challenge to DACA, even though 85, 90 percent of all 
Americans are for DACA.
  Before becoming Georgia's solicitor general, she argued against the 
Affordable Care Act, assisted on an amicus brief defending Indiana's 
defunding of Planned Parenthood, urged the Supreme Court to gut the 
Voting Rights

[[Page S5443]]

Act, and argued to strike down the Affordable Care Act's contraception 
coverage mandate.
  So from reproductive rights to civil rights to gun safety, name a 
partisan legal case from the past 5 years, and there is a good chance 
that Britt Grant has been involved, taking up a fringe legal argument--
way out of the American mainstream--to weaken well-established rights 
and overturn precedent in pursuit of an ideological objective.
  I would also like to bring to my colleagues' attention that in 
speeches and in handwritten notes--even with this extreme record--Judge 
Brett Kavanaugh has repeatedly praised Britt Grant's record. In fact, 
Kavanaugh called Britt Grant ``a superb solicitor general of Georgia.'' 
That is someone with these extreme views.
  Judge Kavanaugh's ringing endorsement of Britt Grant's record may 
serve as a window into his own judicial philosophy. It makes you 
wonder: What, exactly, does Judge Kavanaugh agree with her on so that 
he would call her so many laudatory things?
  Does he agree with Britt Grant that a woman's constitutional, 
guaranteed freedom to make her own reproductive choices should be 
curtailed, even though an overwhelming majority of Americans support 
Roe? Does he believe, like Britt Grant, that States should be able to 
define marriage as only between a man and a woman, even though the 
Supreme Court has declared things the other way? Does he believe, like 
Britt Grant, that insurers shouldn't have to provide contraceptive 
coverage?
  Britt Grant is the kind of lawyer Judge Kavanaugh, in his own words, 
considers ``superb.'' Maybe that is why they both ended up on the same 
short list of 25 potential out-of-the-mainstream court nominees--out of 
the mainstream because they were vetted by the Heritage Foundation, 
which believes that the government should not be involved in 
healthcare, and by the Federalist Society, whose leader's goal is to 
repeal Roe v. Wade, even though 71 percent of Americans are against 
that repeal.
  Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican or Independent, you should 
want a better process for choosing judges. The American people deserve 
judges from the legal mainstream who will interpret the law rather than 
make it, who will respect and defer to precedent unless there is a darn 
good reason not to--not just folks picked off some list prevetted by 
extreme conservative groups that don't represent what a majority of 
Americans think, and they probably don't even represent what a majority 
of Republicans think. But the Republican majority has been advancing an 
assembly line of nakedly partisan, ideological judges like Britt Grant. 
That Judge Kavanaugh has praised her record so roundly is concerning.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WICKER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Ernst). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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