At 9:00 p.m. on July 9, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy late last month. The nomination now goes to the Senate for confirmation, where majority leader Mitch McConnell has said he would like a vote to confirm Kavanaugh by the
fall. This post will examine the key players in the Democratic minority.
The 49-seat Democratic caucus will be unable to block Kavanaugh’s nomination on its own. Now that the filibuster has been eliminated for Supreme Court nominations, only a simple majority of senators is needed to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. Republicans currently hold 51 seats in the Senate, though Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is away from Washington while he receives treatment for brain cancer. If McCain is unable to vote, every Republican will have to vote for Kavanaugh to ensure confirmation without Democratic help.
A contentious confirmation fight will be nothing new for Kavanaugh; his nomination to the D.C. Circuit
stalled for three years amid heavy Democratic opposition before he was confirmed in 2006. When his vote eventually occurred, only four Democrats supported his nomination. Tom Carper of Delaware is the only one of those four still serving today, but he has
indicated that he will vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation this time.