Confirming what anyone with half a brain already knew, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Tuesday that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh told her that he believes Roe v. Wade is "settled law."
“We talked about whether he considered Roe to be settled law. And he said that agreed with what Justice [John] Roberts said at his nomination hearing, at which he said that it was settled law,” Collins told reporters after meeting with Kavanaugh for almost two hours.
Collins, along with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is pro-choice and was seen as a potential obstacle to Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation to the court. She believes that Roe has set a clear precedent and has previously said that any potential nominee to the Supreme Court must respect that precedent.
Kavanaugh has caused concern for progressives and pro-choice Republicans who believe he may be the fifth Supreme Court vote to overturn Roe. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in June, was a notorious swing vote on the court who sided with progressives on the life issue. President Donald Trump promised to only nominate "pro-life" judges to the court to replace any vacancies.
While Supreme Court cases are generally "settled law" binding lower courts, the Supreme Court can overturn its own precedents. Kavanaugh can believe Roe is settled law while also believing that the case was wrongly decided and should be overturned, so his position is not necessarily defined.
Collins needs Kavanaugh's position to remain ambiguous. Polling shows that her constituency in Maine, a moderately liberal northeast state, wants her to reject Kavanaugh and would be less likely to support her for re-election if she votes to confirm him and Roe is overturned. If his position is unclear, Collins will have some cover to join the rest of the GOP majority in supporting Trump's nominee.
The Senate confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh's nomination will begin on September 4.
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CONSPIRACY THEORIES: What really happened to the Obamas’ chef?
If Tafari Campbell drowned tragically, then why are authorities refusing to disclose basic facts about the incident, including the identities of the sole witness and the 911 operator?
According to the Daily Mail, “Massachusetts State Police are covering up information about the drowning of Barack Obama’s personal chef, labeling the incident an accident but continuing to withhold information under the guise of an ongoing investigation,” reports Sara Gonzales.
“The state apparently is citing a public records law exemption that allows police to withhold any information that could jeopardize an act of investigation.”
That’s all well and good – except they’ve already ruled out foul play and deemed the incident an accident, which delegitimizes the necessity of an exemption.
The only thing that is still pending is Campbell’s toxicology report, “but clearly that would not affect anything,” says Sara.
So why the secrecy?
“I have several different theories,” Sara tells Stu Burguiere and Logan Hall.
She has a hard time reconciling how “this really strong swimmer … [drowned] in eight feet of water.”
Stu acknowledges that drowning accidents do happen, but the ongoing concealment of basic facts certainly raises suspicion.
“Let’s say this was nothing,” he ruminates. “They have to know that this is going to inspire thousands of conspiracy theories … so why not be as open and deliberate as possible?”
Sara agrees, adding that “some conspiracy theories are that [Tafari Campbell] was writing a book and … was found with head trauma and three to four feet of water was washed up on shore on the Obama estate, and then also that nobody called 911 for hours; Obama’s own personal coroner was flown from Washington, D.C., to perform the autopsy.”
“These are crazy things,” she admits, but “who are you going to trust? The mainstream media?”
“For the time being, until we get a different media ecosystem in there … you’re going to see a lot of conspiracy theories going viral,” adds Hall.
Personally, Sara thinks there’s a good chance that Campbell “could’ve done something to piss off Big Mike.”
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