Senate Judiciary Path on High Court Nominee Kavanaugh Uncertain Amid Sexual Assault Claims
Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats pushed Monday for Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to postpone a planned Thursday vote on advancing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh amid recent claims he sexually assaulted Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey Ford in the early…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
1980s, when both were teenagers. Ford’s “serious allegations were submitted to the FBI for investigation last week” and the bureau should have time to “perform its due diligence and fully investigate the allegations as part of its review of Judge Kavanaugh’s background,” Senate Judiciary ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and other committee Democrats said in a letter to Grassley. “The standard procedure for updates to any nominee’s background investigation file is to conduct separate follow-up calls with relevant parties,” something Feinstein's office was refusing Monday, Grassley said. “Anyone who comes forward as Dr. Ford has deserves to be heard, so I will continue working on a way to hear her out in an appropriate, precedented and respectful manner.” Kavanaugh faced critical questions during his confirmation hearing earlier this month about his dissent in the U.S. Court of Appeal for the D.C. Circuit's 2017 en banc affirmation of the now-rescinded 2015 net neutrality rules in USTelecom v. FCC (see 1809070046). Senate Judiciary members also asked Kavanaugh about his views on court's Chevron deference to agency expertise and on tech-based privacy issues (see 1809060048).