been explicit on that point, is that the signal element that we should see here in this choice? joining us once again, legal correspondent at slate.com. to this point is senator booker correct that kavanaugh has an and mission it overt record that might appeal to the president because of his own legal woes? i think if the president were pouring over the writings of every person on the list, judge kavanaugh would have given him most sucker. i want to clarify one thing. in the article where he talked about this, he didn t say as a constitutional matter the president should be immune from all civil and liability. he said congress should pass a law to protect the president. i don t think he was making the constitutional point that is quite so broad. he s making a mill argument
was not on the list that president trump might choose. when he was added to the list in late last year, some people saw it as a change to the list that would assure that brett kavanaugh would get his seat. this encouraging justice kennedy that it was safe to retire. we re that a minute and a half away from the nomination. i want to bring in our friend here from slate.com. brett kavanaugh was seen as the most likely pick instantly. is there anything that surprises you about this? a little, i thought he would troll us with coney barrett. i thought he would pick a woman to be the person to reverse roe, to have senator collins and murkowski fight a woman. i thought that would be fun for
connecticut, thank you for being here. thanks. i want you to bring in the conversation a senior editor for slate.com. i m going to read it to you and then tell people how they should feel. quote, many of us prekicked that kennedy would not allow trump to replace him. many of us believed that a the rule of law would not want the work tarnished by a president who attacked judges and the notion of a independent judiciary, we were wrong. you are not totally surprised that he retired, though, am i right? no, i mean we had heard rumors even a year ago that he was tired and wearing out. his wife wanted him to step down. we knew it was coming. i think i was one of the folks who thought justice kennedy is
administration sees that as good and helping them and as fuel for this policy and encouragement to double down. in that environment, when outrage is what they want, what is likely to work? because on so many other issues it has been the courts, should we expect that on this issue it could be the courts as well. joining us now is dolly lithwick from slate.com. thank you for being here. thank you for having me. what do you make of the chances of this policy being blocked or alters in court? well i think that aclu suit that you just described, that was a surprising language. we should note that was a george w. bush appointee who wrote it. and for him to allow this suit to go forward and for the decisions he s making about serring the class and the certifying the class and he utterly rejected justice department argument that this suit should go away and on this issue of why is secretary
trump administration sees that as good and helping them and as fuel for this policy and encouragement to double down. in that environment, when outrage is what they want, what is likely to work? because on so many other issues it has been the courts, should we expect that on this issue it could be the courts as well. joining us now is dolly lithwick from slate.com. thank you for being here. thank you for having me. what do you make of the chances of this policy being blocked or alters in court? well, i think that aclu suit that you just described, that was a surprising language. we should note that was a george w. bush appointee who wrote it. and for him to allow this suit to go forward and for the decisions he s making about the class and the certifying the class and he utterly rejected justice department argument that this suit should go away and on this issue of why is secretary nielsen continuing to call this not a policy, this is because in this lawsuit, they