Brett Kavanaugh
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Brett M. Kavanaugh (born February 12, 1965 in Washington, DC) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He is also a former Staff Secretary in the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Sworn in on June 1, 2006, he is currently the youngest federal Circuit judge in the nation.
President George W. Bush first nominated Kavanaugh to the D.C. Circuit on July 25, 2003, but his nomination was stalled in the Senate for nearly three years. The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended confirmation on a 10-8 party-line vote on May 11, 2006, and Kavanaugh was thereafter confirmed [57-36] by the U.S. Senate on May 26, 2006. On June 1, 2006, he was officially sworn in by Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom he had previously clerked, during a special Rose Garden ceremony at the White House[#endnote_WhiteHouse]. Kavanaugh is Bush's fourth appointment to the D.C. Circuit.
Background
Previously, Kavanaugh served as Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary. In that capacity, he was responsible for coordinating all documents to and from the President. He previously served for two years as Senior Associate Counsel and Associate Counsel to the President. In that capacity, he worked on the numerous constitutional, legal, and ethical issues handled by that office.
Brett M. Kavanaugh was born on February 12, 1965 in Washington, D.C., and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, the son of Edward and Martha Kavanaugh. He is a Roman Catholic and graduated from the Georgetown Preparatory School before going to Yale College.
He received his B.A. from Yale and his law degree from Yale Law School, where he served as Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He is married to Ashley Estes, a native of Abilene, Texas and they have one daughter.
Mr. Kavanaugh clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, as well as Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit and Judge Walter Stapleton of the Third Circuit. Prior to his Supreme Court clerkship, Kavanaugh earned a one-year fellowship in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States, Kenneth Starr. The Solicitor General's office represents the United States before the Supreme Court. Mr. Kavanaugh has argued both civil and criminal matters before the Supreme Court and appellate courts throughout the country.
Prior to his service in this Administration, Mr. Kavanaugh was a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, where his practice focused on appellate matters. Kavanaugh also served as an Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel, where he handled a number of the novel constitutional and legal issues presented during that investigation.
Independent Counsel controversy
Brett Kavanaugh was an Associate for Independent Counsel Ken Starr, and headed up the investigation into the death of former Clinton White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster.[#endnote_headed] Former Associate Independent Counsel Miquel Rodriguez has since claimed that there was a conspiracy to fix the result of the investigation and cover-up the truth about Foster's death.[#endnote_aim] Patrick Knowlton, a grand jury witness, claimed he was subject to witness intimidation.[#endnote_AEP] The federal court supervising the Independent Counsel appended a letter from Knowlton's attorney to the Report[#endnote_report], over the objection of the Office of the Independent Counsel, alleging[#endnote_exhibit2] grand jury witness intimidation and a cover-up.[#endnote_headed]
Footnotes
- ↑ Deb Riechmann, Associated Press, June 1, 2006, ["President Celebrates Judge's Swearing-In"]
- ↑ Al Kamen, "In the Loop." Washington Post, November 18, 2002, p. A19.
- ↑ Accuracy in Media For Fairness, Balance and Accuracy in News Reporting, Tape recorded [comments] of assistant U.S. attorney Miquel Rodriguez to Reed Irvine, Chairman of AIM
- ↑ Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, Regnery (1997), p. 174. ISBN 0-89526-408-0
- ↑ [Report] on the Death of Vincent W. Foster Jr., by the Office of Independent Counsel, In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association.
- ↑ [Exhibit 2] of Appendix to Report on the Death of Vincent W. Foster, Jr., containing comments of Keven Fornshill, Helen Dickey, and Patrick Knowlton. 1997
- ↑ Christopher Ruddy, The Strange Death of Vincent Foster, Free Press (1997), p. 216. ISBN 0-684-83837-0
- ↑ John Clarke, Patrick Knowlton, and Hugh Turley, [Failure of the Public Trust], McCabe Publishing (1999). ISBN 0-9673521-0-X
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External links
- [Federal Judicial Center Profile]
- [White House Bio]
- [Report] On the death of Vincent W. Foster, Jr., by the Office of Independent Counsel in Re: Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association. Available from the government printing office as document number 028-004-00095-8, 137 pages, $14.
- [Failure of the Public Trust]
- [Accuracy In Media]
- [Brett Kavanaugh Resume (USDOJ)]
- [Article in Legal Times (March 7, 2006)]
- [Link to transcript of first Senate hearing (April 27, 2004)]
- [Report of People For the American Way in Opposition to the Confirmation of Brett M. Kavanaugh]
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