Source: https://laramielive.com/kavanaugh-wont-discuss-white-house-subpoenas/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 04:42:13+00:00

Document:
Pressed by Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, on whether he would be independent from the president who nominated him, Kavanaugh responded, "No one is above the law."
But asked later by the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, whether a president can be required to respond to a subpoena, Kavanaugh said, "I can't give you an answer on that hypothetical question." The Supreme Court has never answered that question, and it is among the most important at Kavanaugh's hearing since Trump could face a subpoena in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
Kavanaugh also refused to say whether he thinks a president can pardon himself -- or provide a pardon in exchange for a bribe or pardon someone on the understanding that the person wouldn't testify against the president.
"I'm not going to answer hypothetical questions of that sort," Kavanaugh said, responding to questions from Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
Day two of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings began much as the first with protesters often interrupting proceedings. Some two dozen protesters were escorted from the hearing room after shouting objections to Kavanaugh's nomination. One shouted that the questions senators were asking about executive power were not "hypothetical" and should be answered.
The hearing has strong political overtones ahead of the November election, but Democrats lack the votes to block Kavanaugh's confirmation. They fear Kavanaugh will push the court to the right on abortion, guns and other issues, and that he will side with Trump in cases stemming from Mueller's investigation of Trump's 2016 campaign.
Addressing some of those concerns, Kavanaugh said that "the first thing that makes a good judge is independence, not being swayed by political or public pressure." He cited historic court cases including Brown v. Board of Education that desegregated schools and U.S. v. Nixon that compelled the president to turn over the Watergate tapes -- a ruling that Kavanaugh had previously questioned.
Asked about court precedents, the importance of previously settled cases including the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that ensures access to abortion, Kavanaugh said, "Respect for precedent is important. ... Precedent is rooted right in the Constitution itself."
Kavanaugh noted that Roe was reaffirmed in a 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. He likened it to another controversial, landmark Supreme Court decision, the Miranda ruling about the rights of criminal suspects. Kavanaugh said the court specifically reaffirmed both decisions in later cases that made them "precedent on precedent."
In stressing his independence, Kavanaugh pushed back against suggestions that after his time on independent counsel Kenneth Starr's team investigating Bill Clinton in the 1990s, he no longer believes a sitting president should be investigated. He said his views did shift after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but his ideas about revisiting the special counsel law were merely suggestions.
"They were some ideas for Congress to consider. They were not my constitutional views," he told the panel.
Pressed by Feinstein on his comment several years ago that U.S. v. Nixon might have been wrongly decided, he said his quote — shown on a poster above the senator — was "not in context" and "I have repeatedly called U.S. v. Nixon one of the four greatest moments in court history."
The judge's work in the George W. Bush White House also has figured in the hearing, particularly as Democratic senators have fought for access to his documents from his three years as staff secretary that could shed light on his views about policies from that era, including the detention and interrogation of terror suspects. Republicans have declined to seek those papers, and instead have gathered documents from his work as White House counsel to Bush. Many are being held as confidential within the committee.
But Kavanaugh declined to engage, saying. "I do not believe that's consistent" with the way prior nominations have been handled. He also declined to give an opinion on the Republicans' action on the documents, responding, "It is not for me to say."
Kavanaugh responded to Durbin, as he did to similar questioning from Leahy about Bush-era surveillance policy, that his earlier testimony was "100 percent accurate."
Trump jumped into the fray Tuesday, saying on Twitter that Democrats were "looking to inflict pain and embarrassment" on Kavanaugh.
The most likely outcome of this week's hearings is a vote along party lines to send Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate. Majority Republicans can confirm Kavanaugh without any Democratic votes, though they'll have little margin for error.

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