By Cole Lauterbach/Illinois Radio Network
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Illinois’ voice in the vetting of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee is siding with the protesters who were ushered out of the hearing.
Protesters of Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s nominee to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, disrupted the first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and were escorted out.
In his opening statements, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin from Illinois voiced his support for the protesters.
“There have been times where it was uncomfortable. I’m sure it was for your children. I hope you can explain this to them at some point but it does represent what we are about in this democracy,” he said. “What we’ve heard is the noise of democracy. This is what happens in a free country when people can stand up and speak and not be jailed.”
Turning his attention to Kavanaugh, he told the nominee that the Republican effort to hide his record is telling.
“Ask this meeting, this gathering to suspend until all the documents of your public career are there for the American people to see,” Durbin told Kavanaugh.
There were a number of issues Durbin had with Kavanaugh, but he told the nominee the biggest reason to oppose him is simply that of who nominated him.
“Over and above all of those things is this: You are the nominee of President Donald John Trump,” Durbin said, listing a number of things Trump has done that Durbin said shows he is “contemptuous of the rule of law.”
President Barack Obama’s pick for the nation’s highest court, Illinois resident Merrick Garland, wasn’t given a hearing shortly before his tenure ended, another bone of contention with Democrats over the Republican majority.
In spite of the politics, the American Bar Association gave Kavanaugh their highest rating of “well-qualified” before the hearings began.
