Media Center

Americans expect and deserve an impartial judiciary. Justice Amy Coney Barrett owes it to the American people to recuse herself from any litigation related to the 2020 Election. She would do grave harm to the integrity and reputation of the U.S. Supreme Court if she were to rule on any election litigation.

Initial reports about the brief FBI investigation of sexual assault allegations reek of a whitewash as the Senate scrambles to fill the Supreme Court seat before facing voters in November. Combined with the abbreviated and inadequate document release of Brett Kavanaugh’s professional career and his appearance at last week’s hearing, many questions have been raised about Judge Kavanaugh’s fitness to serve as a Justice and they must be answered.

No senator should be pushing for a vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to a lifetime seat on the highest court in the land. A vote tomorrow would be reckless and irresponsible. There is not enough information for any senator to provide informed advice and consent.

The rushed and deficient process to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court has been anything but deliberative. The Senate must immediately hit pause. Hastily convening a hearing on Monday concerning Professor Christine Blasey Ford’s serious allegations is unacceptable and it should be postponed. It is past time to activate an emergency brake.

Today, Common Cause called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay its scheduled vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court in light of new allegations of sexual assault by the nominee. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Common Cause urged the committee to require Kavanaugh to testify under oath about the accusations.

Americans deserve the whole record of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, not the whitewashed version the Senate Judiciary Committee’s majority has released. As this week’s extraordinary events in the Committee have made clear, this is the least transparent Supreme Court nomination process in our lifetime. Millions of pages of Judge Kavanaugh’s records have been withheld from the Senate and from the public. Many that are in the Judiciary Committee’s possession are still marked “committee confidential,” even though making them public will provide important information to the American people, as questioning by Senators Feinstein, Leahy, Klobuchar, Hirono, Booker, and Harris have made clear. Though the nominee may not recall many of his actions, the records have shown a very different story in some instances. Moreover, in response to probing questions by Sen. Blumenthal, Judge Kavanaugh refused to commit to recusing from cases involving President Trump’s potential criminal and civil liability that may be headed to the Supreme Court.