Yale law professor makes liberal’s case for Kavanaugh

A Yale Law School professor who backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 is defending President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, calling the nomination Trump’s “finest hour, his classiest move.”

Akhil Reed Amar wrote in the New York Times op-ed, titled “A Liberal’s Case for Brett Kavanaugh,” that “it is hard to name anyone with judicial credentials as strong as those of Judge Kavanaugh.”

“Several of Judge Kavanaugh’s most important ideas and arguments — such as his powerful defense of presidential authority to oversee federal bureaucrats and his skepticism about newfangled attacks on the property rights of criminal defendants — have found their way into Supreme Court opinions,” Amar wrote.

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Amar, who said he had taught the nominee at Yale Law School, also praised Kavanaugh for “admirably confessing that some of the views he held 20 years ago as a young lawyer — including his crabbed understandings of the presidency when he was working for the Whitewater independent counsel, Kenneth Starr — were erroneous.”

The law professor called for Democrats to refrain from attacking Kavanaugh during the hearings and tying up his nomination.

“I propose that the Democrats offer the following compromise: Each Senate Democrat will pledge either to vote yes for Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation — or, if voting no, to first publicly name at least two clearly better candidates whom a Republican president might realistically have nominated instead (not an easy task),” Amar wrote.

“In exchange for this act of good will, Democrats will insist that Judge Kavanaugh answer all fair questions at his confirmation hearing.”

Trump tapped Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court late Monday. Democrats quickly came out against the nomination, with several top senators promising to oppose him.