Bravo, Brett Kavanaugh

B ravo, Brett Kavanaugh.

To be an officer of the United States, delegated a portion of the sovereign power of this country, is a high honor and privilege. It also comes with many responsibilities and sacrifices. The job often entails a pay cut, and while you are in office, your freedom to act as any American citizen would is limited. You have to watch what you say, where you go, and what you do. During Senate confirmation and once you enter public service, your life is under withering scrutiny from political interests hunting for careers and reputations to shred for the sake of their base. Of course this affects your family as well.

Even as we disagree with presidents, cabinet secretaries, or members of Congress, or with judges’ opinions, we should respect them for being willing to tolerate this lifestyle. It’s not easy and, in a free society, never will be.

What should not be part of this bargain, however, are threats to one’s life. As a country, we often tolerate hateful statements against our public officials, under the aegis of the First Amendment. But physical harm is where we draw the line, and any attempts to do physical harm must be condemned and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

That line, for Brett Kavanaugh, has been fading since the moment he was nominated as a justice of the Supreme Court in 2018. On his first day as a nominee, July 9, he faced gales of opposition. “I will oppose Judge Kavanaugh with everything I have,” tweeted then–minority leader Chuck Schumer, 23 minutes after the news broke of his nomination. The then–D.C. circuit judge, with a gentle demeanor and a long record of public service, was greeted with great discourtesy by most Democrats, with some even refusing to meet with him given his perceived legal views and Republican background. Still, he persisted, and, in his first confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh answered every hostile question with deftness and erudition.

Then came the accusations of sexual assault in an attempt to kill his nomination. The choreographed scandal kept building, with each accusation being progressively more absurd: Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation of assault which merited the most attention, though it was disputed by others at the high-school party where she claimed it had occurred; Deborah Ramirez’s claim that he had exposed himself to her in college, for which no corroboration was offered; and then the preposterous claim by Julie Swetnick that she was “gang raped” by Kavanaugh and others — peddled by felon-attorney Michael Avenatti. These were, as an FBI investigation later indicated, baseless accusations — an attempt at character assassination of a man the American Bar Association once described as having “integrity that is absolutely unquestioned” and being “warm, friendly, and unassuming — the nicest person.”

Yet they made Kavanaugh public enemy No. 1 for the Left. Credible death threats flooded in against the man and his family. Despite the ordeal, Kavanaugh did not withdraw his nomination. In his second confirmation hearing, after Ford’s testimony, he defended himself in an impassioned manner, holding nothing back as he took apart the allegations against him. Kavanaugh may have drunk beer while in high school but had done nothing to justify this treatment. He did not give up, and he was confirmed.

The events of this week marked the final erosion of that line against violence. On Wednesday, a 26-year-old man from California, Nicholas Roske, allegedly tried to assassinate Kavanaugh at his home in Maryland. He was carrying not only a handgun with ammunition, but also zip ties, duct tape, a nail punch, a crowbar, and hiking boots with padding on the outside of the soles (to cover up footprints), among other items, according to the court affidavit. Roske claimed to have found Kavanaugh’s address on the Internet; protests had been held outside his home since early May.

Even as Kavanaugh faced this threat to his life, Democrats in Washington responded with silence and, in some cases, acquiescence. President Joe Biden offered no words of condemnation. House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has delayed voting on a Senate-passed bill to increase security for justices’ families, denied the threat entirely, saying that “nobody is in danger over the weekend because of our not having a bill” — after the attempt on Kavanaugh’s life was reported. Major media, meanwhile, showed little interest in the story: The New York Times put it on page A20 of its Thursday edition. Some accused conservatives of reacting to the assassination attempt by trying to “smear” Democrats.

That the leak of the draft Dobbs opinion has led to particular vitriol against Kavanaugh is absurd. He was not the opinion’s author but one of five justices in the apparent majority. In fact, in the court’s 6–3 conservative majority, Kavanaugh has been regarded as a “swing vote” like his predecessor, Anthony Kennedy, for whom he clerked. If there is any conservative justice inclined to vote against conservative interests in a case — be it on guns, abortion, or elections — it’s him. Still, he is a prime target of activists’ rage, and now the target of an alleged assassin.

It’s one thing to be disrespected, another to be slandered, and another to be threatened with death. But to face an attempt on your life, only for other federal officers to shrug it off, might make any man doubt whether his job is worth it.

Brett Kavanaugh shows no sign of buckling under pressure or succumbing to intimidation. In doing so, he models the idea of an independent jurist. For this, he and his family deserve the admiration and gratitude of every American.