Kavanaugh says Supreme Court justices have ‘great relations,’ praises liberal colleagues

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said on Monday that he and his fellow justices on the high court have “great relations,” heaping plenty of praise on his current and former liberal colleagues.

“My experience with the court in my four and a half years and at this moment is there are great relations among all nine justices, both personally and professionally,” Kavanaugh said at an event with Notre Dame Law School, a video of which was made public on Thursday.

“We only get tough cases, and we disagree on some of those,” he added. “But we work well together, and we get along well together.”

Kavanaugh noted that the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former Justice Stephen Breyer, both liberals, were particularly welcoming to him when he first joined the court. 

Ginsburg defended Kavanaugh and fellow conservative justice, Neil Gorsuch, in 2019, saying they were both “very decent and very smart individuals.” She also publicly applauded Kavanaugh’s decision to hire a staff of all female clerks.

“Justice Ginsburg would publicly talk about me a lot during my first term,” he said at the Monday event. “She didn’t have to do that … and I’ll never forget that. It was very meaningful to me what she said.”

Kavanaugh also praised Breyer, who stepped down from the court last year, for being “just an amazing colleague,” who was “always trying to reach a consensus, always positive, always optimistic, always friendly.”

He added that the newest addition to the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, was “off to a great start.”

“It’s wonderful to have two new colleagues who have fit in, in my judgement, fit in well with the group,” he said, referring to Jackson and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

The Supreme Court has faced heavy criticism in recent years over several controversial rulings, particularly its June decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion decisions back to the states.

The court’s approval rating fell to 38 percent in July, following the ruling. However, it has since recovered slightly, with about 47 percent of Americans saying they approve of the court in a January poll.