Justice Brett Kavanaugh sat down last Thursday with professor Joel Alicea of The Catholic University Columbus School of Law for a discussion hosted by its Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition.
His remarks start at 10:00. Justice Kavanaugh talked about separation of powers, originalism (naming Justice Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and Judge Robert Bork on his “modern Mount Rushmore of originalism”), tradition (“there is a great tradition in the judiciary of relying on tradition”), precedent, the importance of explaining decisions, the greatness of America, working for George W. Bush before and after September 11, learning optimism “under unimaginable pressure” from Bush and traveling with him (“he is just the greatest guy; he’s pretty funny”), watching Pope John Paul II receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Kavanaugh’s Catholic upbringing, and his advice on being a good judge. On that score, he cited the hymn “Be Not Afraid,” which he recalled learning from his music teacher at Georgetown Prep:
If you’re going to be a good judge, you’ve got to be not afraid. Be not afraid to make hard decisions and get criticized, and get ridiculed, and get mocked, and you know, that’s going to happen . . . and you have to remember like the hymn says, be not afraid when they persecute you . . . be not afraid, I go before you always. And it comes of course reflected in the Sermon on the Mount as well . . . and that’s really important, to have backbone, to do the right thing even when it’s the hard thing. . . . You’re going to get blasted, and you know you’re going to lose friends, and in my job, you lose a lot of friends, and that’s just the reality of it. But you’ve got to be not afraid to do the right thing, to stick to your principles, to stick to your guns, to have backbone and to have — going back to the judge as umpire, referee — to have thick skin. You’ve got to have really thick skin.
That does not mean — I want to just caveat this for the students particularly — that does not mean you ignore critiques. You learn from critiques, responsible critiques. You pay attention. Maybe we didn’t do this just perfectly. Maybe I could do something better. But, at the same time, you can’t be buffaloed, intimidated, swayed just because something’s going to be controversial or criticized. . . . When you’ve thought about it, you’ve listened to both sides, and you’ve made your decision, and you think it’s the right thing, you’ve got to do it and you’ve got to be not afraid.
