California’s two U.S. Senators both declared immediately on Monday evening that they will oppose the confirmation of D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Their votes are largely irrelevant, since the Republican Party has a slim majority in the Senate and can confirm Supreme Court justices on a simple majority vote — thanks in part to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who broke with tradition and ended the filibuster rule for most judicial nominees in 2013.
Feinstein’s opposition is relevant, however, as she is the ranking member — the leading member of the Democratic Party minority — on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Harris’s opposition is also important for symbolic reasons, as she is widely considered a leading contender for the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2020.
Both attacked Kavanaugh in strident terms without citing any specific decisions he had made:
Feinstein also rejected a White House invitation to attend the announcement of Kavanaugh’s nomination on Monday evening.
Neither Feinstein nor Harris mentioned Kavanaugh’s qualifications. A liberal Yale Law School professor wrote in the New York Times Tuesday that “it is hard to name anyone with judicial credentials as strong as those of Judge Kavanaugh.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.