Brett Kavanaugh Says ‘There’s a Great Relationship’ Between the 9 Supreme Court Justices

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the public shouldn’t read about the Supreme Court’s historically slow start to publishing opinions.

Each year, judges begin hearing cases in October and usually complete their work by the end of June before going on summer vacation. However, this mandate lasted more than three months without resolving a case in which they heard arguments. On Monday, judges finally announced a unanimous decision in one case and dismissed another.

Some observers have questioned whether the slow pace could be due to several factors: a change in the composition of the court with the arrival of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, less consensus on a deeply divided hearing, or the consequences of the flight of a draft opinion in the last quarter. in the event that half a century destroyed abortion rights.

Kavanaugh downplayed the slow pitch.

“I am confident that they will all be out by the end of June. So I don’t think anyone should worry. … It’s just a coincidence that the mix of cases was in October and November,” Kavanaugh said during an appearance at the University of Notre Dame Law School on Monday, the same day as the first notice of the semester. was announced. Kavanaugh was in law school and didn’t sit on the bench to hear Judge Amy Coney Barrett give the opinion in a veterans disability case.

Kavanaugh was not asked about the leaked last-trimester abortion ruling during the appearance, though he mentioned it indirectly, calling the final term a “difficult year in court.” Kavanaugh, who eventually voted to overturn abortion rights, was the target of protests and a murder threat after the leak.

Kavanaugh was also not asked about a new documentary exploring allegations of sexual misconduct against him that emerged during his 2018 confirmation hearing. Kavanaugh has denied those allegations.

Kavanaugh spoke on a range of other topics, including his experience in Catholic schools and how that shaped him, relationships between judges, and his experience working for President George W. Bush before becoming a judge. He spoke with the dean of Notre Dame Law School, G. Marcus Cole, in a conversation that lasted about an hour.

“My experience with the court – in my four and a half years and now – is that there is a great bond between the nine judges, both personally and professionally. … We only receive difficult cases. We disagree on some. I think it’s more nuanced than sometimes said,” he said of the court, which is now split 6-3 between conservatives and liberals.

Kavanaugh also weighed in on a recent U.S. News & World Report law school ranking controversy that led to a boycott by a number of high-profile programs.

“I think these reviews are very problematic. They’re based on things, as I understand it, that are very amorphous, very subjective, very word-of-mouth that don’t mesh well with the education you’re actually getting,” said Kavanaugh, who attended Yale Law School. the first to drop out of the standings.

Though Kavanaugh spoke at Notre Dame on Monday, video of the performance was first released on Thursday.

The court is currently silent. Judges will return to court in late February when they hear arguments in cases related to President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, two high-profile internet cases and another case about limits on asylum in the era of the pandemic, known as Title 42.