Thread by @kalhan

There are, of course, political regimes in the world where people who brown nose rulers to obtain greater judicial prestige and power, as Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have done, would fit right into the judiciary as committed loyalists. 7/

https://twitter.com/sarahkendzior/status/1029046453480644608

Under those kinds of regimes, judges whose loyalty has been assured have often proceeded to play significant roles in further entrenching the power and control of those regimes, and in undermining representative institutions. 8/ ssrn.com/abstract=20871…

Those situations are not identical to the US, but when a country that has been stably democratic starts to evolve in more authoritarian directions, we should pay close attention even to the more subtle ways in which the judiciary can be manipulated. 9/ jstor.org/stable/41349660

I certainly don't expect judges or other public officials to be saints. And again, there are other, more substantive concerns about Kavanaugh's record that demand greater scrutiny too, as @NAACP_LDF has documented in detail. 10/

https://twitter.com/NAACP_LDF/status/1035198506317897728

But Republican apparatchiks like @robportman should spare us their insistence that these #TrumpJudges have exhibited "great character," when they've revealed rather different qualities in the nomination process itself for all to see. 11/

https://twitter.com/kalhan/status/1036775427023486976