Sen. Rob Portman will be among the bipartisan team introducing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as the Senate Judiciary Committee begins confirmation hearings Tuesday.
Portman will be joined by Condoleezza Rice and Lisa Blatt, who has argued 35 cases before the Supreme Court. She described herself as a “liberal feminist” lawyer in an opinion piece supporting Kavanaugh on Politico.
“As I’ve said to some of my colleagues – who are trying to figure out whether they’re going to support him or not – is, ‘He has the humility to listen.’ And I think for a Supreme Court judge, that may be the most important attribute,” Portman said.
Portman says he thinks the committee and public will be impressed by Kavanaugh during the hearings.
“Even my Democratic colleagues who’ve already said they’re going to be a ‘no’ acknowledge to me he’s qualified,” Portman said. “Because he’s on the second highest court in the land. Most people think that the D.C. Circuit is right below the Supreme Court. And his opinions have been widely praised.”
Kavanaugh needs 50 Senate votes to be confirmed. He was tapped by President Trump to fill the spot left on the court by the retirement Justice Anthony Kennedy.
All 10 Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary have called for the hearing to be postponed and replaced with a special meeting, “given the possibility of criminal wrongdoing by the president.”
Ohio's other senator -- Democrat Sherrod Brown -- met with Kavanaugh last month and said he was concerned that his decisions as a lower court judge showed a pattern of ruling in favor of corporations and against labor and consumer interests.
