Anti-environment Supreme Court

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Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has defended his record on environmental issues, telling senators during his Senate confirmation hearing that he hasn’t fully favored polluting industries during his 12 years as an appeals court judge. Kavanaugh insisted at his hearing in early September that he has instead ruled in favor of environmental regulations a number of times.

The saga over Kavanaugh’s nomination appears to be nearing a conclusion. The U.S. Senate voted Friday morning to move Kavanaugh’s nomination forward and the Senate is expected to conduct a final vote on his nomination Saturday afternoon. If his nomination is successful, the Supreme Court will have gained someone who is widely viewed as the most pro-polluter judge on the D.C. Circuit. Kavanaugh’s misleading statements about his voting record in environmental cases is part of a trend in which the judge has either obfuscated his past legal opinions or outright lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Kavanaugh was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2006; the court hears numerous cases each year involving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other environmental matters. And in its recent analysis, environmental law firm Earthjustice found that of 26 EPA-related cases in which Kavanaugh wrote opinions, the judge sided with rolling back protections for clean air and water 89 percent of the time. He also ruled against animals and wildlife 96 percent of the time, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Since 2006, whenever a decision emerged from the D.C. Circuit that included a 2-1 vote in favor of an environmental protection during his tenure, the odds were favorable that Kavanaugh — if he were one of the three judges picked to hear the case — was the lone dissenter..

Kavanaugh’s misleading claims about his environmental record in line with other falsehoods – ThinkProgress