Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - July 10, 2018


Ep 18 ｜ Who Is Kavanaugh？


Episode Stats

Length

37 minutes

Words per Minute

177.24861

Word Count

6,647

Sentence Count

409

Misogynist Sentences

9

Hate Speech Sentences

13


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 What's up, guys? First ever Tuesday podcast. First podcast being videoed for CRTV.com,
00:00:07.080 which is really exciting. As you guys know, Relatable is now going two times a week on
00:00:13.380 Tuesday and on Thursday. This is the first week that that is happening. So I'm really happy about
00:00:19.900 that. And we have a lot to cover today because last night, President Trump chose Kavanaugh as
00:00:25.600 the nominee for the next Supreme Court justice. So I'm going to quickly go through who Kavanaugh is
00:00:32.260 or everything that I know about who he is, the reaction of people on both sides of the aisle.
00:00:38.200 Then I'm going to interview attorney Ken Klukowski from First Liberty Institute. That's an organization
00:00:44.740 that fights for religious liberty. He is going to give us deeper insight into Kavanaugh, how we can
00:00:52.260 expect him to judge and this crazy uphill battle that we're likely going to have over the next
00:00:58.300 few weeks and months. So we'll be getting his expert opinion on all of that. As you can imagine,
00:01:05.200 just like every other day since 2015, liberals and Democrats in Congress are very, very upset.
00:01:12.580 They are mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, saying that Kavanaugh is some right wing ideologue who is going
00:01:20.160 to overturn Roe v. Wade, ruin the environment and constantly side with big business. They have
00:01:26.940 gotten right to their fear mongering. Actually, it happened before he was even nominated. I promise
00:01:33.360 you that Trump could have nominated probably Maxine Waters herself or Mother Teresa incarnate,
00:01:40.200 and they probably would have still been upset. But they are trying to work up the public. So the public,
00:01:45.500 in turn, puts pressure on their senators to vote against Kavanaugh. This is all a political tactic
00:01:50.640 going into the midterms. Like I said, they were upset about the Supreme Court pick before Trump even
00:01:58.160 announced the pick. No matter what, they would have been outraged. They know that the more outrage they
00:02:04.720 can drum up, the better their chances probably are come November. People were protesting with Planned
00:02:12.540 Parenthood signs before the announcement was actually made. Elizabeth Warren, of course,
00:02:17.640 was was ready with all of her talking points to go on MSNBC last night, right after it happened,
00:02:23.800 telling us all just how completely awful this is, how this is just a political decision.
00:02:30.260 Democrats are saying that the only reason that Trump picked Kavanaugh is because in 1998,
00:02:36.480 so a long time, 20 years ago, Kavanaugh wrote that Congress should make a law protecting a sitting
00:02:43.240 president from being indicted. They're saying that he picked Kavanaugh for personal, selfish reasons.
00:02:49.620 That to me is just complete conjecture. And that also assumes that Kavanaugh doesn't have any other
00:02:56.040 qualifications. And that's just not true. I think that Trump picked Kavanaugh because he has a lot
00:03:01.840 of experience. He has spent 12 years on the D.C. Circuit Court. He has a lot of support from
00:03:07.840 conservatives. Now, some people on the right are saying that Kavanaugh hasn't been conservative
00:03:12.720 enough. A lot of people were hoping for Amy Barrett. I was hoping for Amy Barrett, who is
00:03:18.200 outspokenly. I don't want to say she's outspokenly conservative, but she is outspokenly pro-life and she
00:03:24.220 is a textualist and originalist. She's also younger than Kavanaugh, so she would have been on the court
00:03:29.380 for longer. But still, people are saying that there is hope for her once another justice retire
00:03:35.080 or sadly dies. For now, we have Kavanaugh. Ben Shapiro, for example, has outlined his concerns
00:03:43.160 with Kavanaugh. And I am apt to trust Ben Shapiro on these kinds of matters. But most of the conservative
00:03:50.960 analysis I've read is satisfied with Kavanaugh's history of jurisprudence. I'm not going to go through
00:03:57.360 every single disagreement that conservatives have on this because you can easily look it up online.
00:04:03.940 And honestly, the arguers probably do a lot better job of outlining their own positions than I can.
00:04:09.560 But whatever the difference is, I think something that all conservatives, everyone on the right can
00:04:14.300 agree on is that Kavanaugh is a much better pick than anyone Hillary would have picked. Democrats do
00:04:21.740 have reason to be worried, to be concerned. If it was Hillary picking a nominee, Republicans would be
00:04:28.360 doing the same things. In fact, we did do a lot of the same things. We did have a lot of the same
00:04:33.080 concerns when Obama wanted to nominate Merrick Garland to take the place of Scalia. Kavanaugh is part of the
00:04:42.080 Republican establishment in D.C. He worked for Bush during the election recount in 2000. Before that,
00:04:48.480 he worked under Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel that led to or that led the investigation
00:04:54.120 that led to Clinton's impeachment. And it was actually Kavanaugh himself that was the main author
00:04:58.960 of the ultimate Starr report. So you can bet that Hillary Clinton probably wouldn't have nominated
00:05:04.880 Kavanaugh. In 2006, he was hired to the D.C. Circuit of Appeals, where he's been a part of over 300
00:05:11.900 opinions. He has a ton of history, and I think he's only 53. He clerked for Justice Kennedy,
00:05:18.460 who was appointed by Reagan, whom he's obviously replacing now. He worked in the Bush White House
00:05:24.300 for several years and is fully endorsed by the Bush family. George W. Bush sent a letter last night
00:05:30.760 saying that it was a great decision by Trump. Now, his connection, Kavanaugh's connection with the Bush
00:05:36.620 family actually at one point was working against him, according to Trump or in Trump's mind, because
00:05:42.140 Trump doesn't like the Bush's, which, in my opinion, is stupid. But that's neither here nor there.
00:05:48.680 Elizabeth Warren on MSNBC last night called Kavanaugh a political animal, whatever that means.
00:05:55.340 I don't even I don't know what that means, but I highly doubt she knows what that means either,
00:05:59.180 because everyone, especially every woman on the left, is just illogically and well, I won't say
00:06:07.700 illogically because I understand, I guess, from their perspective why they're mad, but overwhelmingly
00:06:12.400 upset because they claim that Kavanaugh is anti-choice. There are two recent cases that lead
00:06:18.780 them to believe this. In 2017, he ruled against providing an abortion to an illegal immigrant
00:06:25.580 teenager because it would make the U.S. government complicit in something it finds morally objectionable,
00:06:31.880 or that's at least the quote that I found. I'm not sure if that's actually a direct quote,
00:06:36.820 because what I've actually heard is that he just thought that it expanded abortion rights to be
00:06:41.980 universal to people that are not citizens of the United States. And he thought that that was
00:06:45.500 too much of an expansion, which makes sense. And in 2015, he said that Barack Obama's contraception
00:06:51.240 mandate infringed on the rights of religious organizations who had objections to providing
00:06:56.760 or covering contraception for their employees, which, duh, that's not a matter of being pro-choice
00:07:02.360 or being pro-life. That's a matter of religious liberty, which, hey, if you like the Constitution,
00:07:07.040 which we know Democrats don't, then you should be an advocate of religious liberty.
00:07:11.920 Kavanaugh has never said, though, in all of that, he's never said that he would overturn Roe v.
00:07:17.460 Wade. Now he's Catholic. He is a family man. He had his two cute daughters on stage with him last
00:07:23.100 night when he was speaking. He is a Republican as far as we know. So I would guess that he is
00:07:29.280 probably pretty pro-life himself, but he has restrained from commenting directly on Roe, which
00:07:35.700 is probably partly why some conservatives think that he's not actually pro-life enough compared to
00:07:40.900 someone like Barrett, who has made her views on abortion clear. But Democrats absolutely feel that
00:07:46.760 Roe was in danger of being overturned. I want you to listen to what Cecile Richards,
00:07:51.760 the CEO of Planned Parenthood, had to say about this on MSNBC last night.
00:07:56.860 And I think one of the things to look at is not only who we're seeing in opposition to this
00:08:01.360 nomination, but I noticed before I came on tonight, Lawrence, that every major national
00:08:06.860 anti-choice organization is popping the champagne tonight, saying this is a huge victory,
00:08:12.400 finally to get a, you know, anti-choice majority on the Supreme Court. So I think it is going to be
00:08:18.520 incredibly important in these hearings to push this judge about where he feels and where he stands on
00:08:23.300 a case that was decided 45 years ago, Roe versus Wade. I mean, that is music to my ears.
00:08:30.080 That's music to my ears. I'm glad she's scared. I am popping champagne bottles. But see, here's the
00:08:35.480 thing. The left does not care at all about the Constitution. They are only concerned with the
00:08:41.060 protection of their political agenda. So you never hear them talk about the constitutionality
00:08:46.300 of Roe v. Wade. You just hear them say, well, you know, it's settled law. It's been around for 45
00:08:51.560 years. Well, yeah. Well, OK. Slavery was also settled law. Segregation was settled law. Women not having a
00:09:01.200 right to vote. That was settled law. Since when is settled law an argument for the legitimacy or the
00:09:08.060 morality of a case. And I think that liberals know that somewhere deep down in their little
00:09:13.700 minds, they know that they know that Roe v. Wade was a poorly decided case. If they thought that it
00:09:19.280 was a rock solid constitutional decision, do you really think that they would be worried? No. But
00:09:24.500 they know that there is no merit, was no merit and still is no merit to say the 14th Amendment's
00:09:30.800 right to privacy protects the murder of an unborn child. So they're scared. This is the number
00:09:37.660 one thing that they are concerned about. They will be walking around, no doubt, in costumes from
00:09:44.300 Handmaid's Tale for the next four months until the midterms convincing women that Kavanaugh hates
00:09:48.840 hates them and is going to take away all of their rights, which is not true in any sense. Number one,
00:09:55.520 you shouldn't have a right to kill someone. So you can jot that down. Number two, Roe v. Wade probably
00:10:01.520 is not going to be overturned. I would I would love for it to be. I mean, you just heard Cecile
00:10:07.120 Richards. It could be. But I think the most that we can hope for is that in its overturning
00:10:13.940 that the the states would just have the freedom to do what they want with abortion if they so choose.
00:10:20.720 If they want to ban abortion, they can. There will still be, unfortunately, a plethora of pro-abortion
00:10:27.600 states where women can just get in their cars and go have an abortion. So the melodrama is really
00:10:33.540 all a show. It is all politicking. It is all a ploy to encourage more outrage against Donald Trump.
00:10:40.680 It doesn't matter that Kavanaugh went to Yale Law School, teaches at Georgetown, at Harvard,
00:10:44.960 at Yale, or that he was hired at Harvard by Justice Kagan, a very liberal justice,
00:10:50.540 or that according to his former classmate, he enjoys the company of a lot of liberal friends
00:10:56.560 and he entertains a lot of different viewpoints in his everyday life. None of this matters because
00:11:00.780 the progressive agenda is at stake. The Constitution be damned. The progressive agenda is at stake.
00:11:06.500 And Kavanaugh is an originalist, according to quite a few people, including J.D. Vance,
00:11:12.020 who is the author of Hillbilly Elegy, who had Kavanaugh as a professor. So yeah, to people who hate the
00:11:18.320 Constitution, Kavanaugh is probably a little bit scary, but I don't really have that much sympathy for
00:11:24.920 people who live in the United States and don't appreciate our founding documents. Forgive me.
00:11:30.500 All in all, is he as conservative as Amy Barrett? Probably not, which could be why Trump picked him.
00:11:37.520 He probably thought it would be easier for him to get through the Senate, which that's that's probably
00:11:42.100 true, I guess. I don't I don't know, though. I don't know if that's true. Like I've said, I have a hard
00:11:48.020 time believing Democrats in the Senate would be OK with anyone Trump nominated. So it's going to be
00:11:54.640 a really fun few months. And by fun, I mean, really annoying, but but also exciting. That's going to
00:12:01.860 give us a lot to talk about. OK, here to dig a little bit deeper is an expert giving his legal
00:12:09.940 opinion. Ken Kulkowski from First Liberty Institute. Ali, thanks for having me. OK, so what do you make
00:12:17.100 of Kavanaugh's nomination? I think that President Trump's selection of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the
00:12:24.140 U.S. Supreme Court is a solid win for the American people in the Constitution. I think this is promise
00:12:30.240 made, promise kept once again on the part of the president. Judge Kavanaugh has shown over the 12
00:12:37.640 years that he's been on the second highest court of the land, the D.C. Circuit. He's shown how brilliant
00:12:44.060 he is, how eloquent he is. But most importantly, he has shown and he reaffirmed verbally last night
00:12:51.440 in his televised remarks that he believes that the Constitution of the United States must always
00:12:57.380 and only be interpreted according to the original public meaning of its words. And that is that kind
00:13:04.100 of originalism is exactly what the American people should expect and even demand of their Supreme Court
00:13:10.720 justices. And it's what President Trump promised that he would deliver. So there's been a lot of
00:13:16.660 back and forth among conservatives about just how originalist, textualist he actually is. Do you think
00:13:24.440 the concerns from some conservatives that he's not quite enough of a constitutionalist, do you think
00:13:30.760 those are valid or not really? I do not think that they are. I've been reading through all of the
00:13:36.460 decisions. Of course, I've been reading his decisions for, you know, for the better part of
00:13:41.360 a decade. But it's as I've been reading through the decisions that people that certain activists have
00:13:48.060 tried to flag. What about this one? What about that one? In each case, I've seen a judge who is both
00:13:55.340 going as far as he's allowed to, but also has explicitly acknowledged that he is a judge on an inferior
00:14:02.900 court. And as so, he is absolutely 100% subordinate to the Supreme Court of the United States. And if
00:14:10.320 the Supreme Court hands down a liberal precedent, he as an appeals judge has no choice but to follow
00:14:18.620 that precedent. So no, it seems like the only criticisms I've heard from some people, they've
00:14:26.320 been criticizing him for not sort of acting in a as a judicial activist of striking the tone as if he
00:14:33.720 were already on the Supreme Court and defying the court that the Constitution commands him to be
00:14:40.700 subordinate to. So no, I see that as following the rule of the law and the Constitution.
00:14:45.920 Right. Because some people are saying, like, for example, in the case with the illegal immigrant
00:14:50.980 teenage girl who wanted to get an abortion, he ruled how conservatives would want him to rule by
00:14:55.960 saying, you know, we should should not be granting that we would be morally complicit. However, some
00:15:02.460 people are saying that he didn't go far enough in his decision that he didn't say he didn't talk
00:15:08.080 about the damage that Roe v. Wade has done. Do you think that there is any credibility to that
00:15:14.260 criticism? Not only do I not think it's credible, I think it would be improper for him to do so.
00:15:20.760 An inferior court judge. And that's the term that the Constitution use is inferior courts. Inferior
00:15:27.580 court judges do not criticize, should not criticize the U.S. Supreme Court. They are there as their
00:15:34.240 subordinates. You know, you can't criticize your superior officers in the U.S. military. Lower court
00:15:40.620 judges are not supposed to criticize the Supreme Court. He went as far as he could in the pro-life
00:15:46.900 direction under existing Supreme Court precedent. He said that what the ACLU was trying to do in that
00:15:55.800 case, he said, would be a radical expansion of abortion jurisprudence. So, I mean, when you're
00:16:02.200 using words like radical, those are very, very strong words for a judge to use in an opinion.
00:16:08.280 I saw that as a very solidly pro-life decision where he stayed within the bounds of what the
00:16:17.180 Supreme Court gave him no choice on, but made him clear that he was going as much in the pro-life
00:16:22.700 direction as possible. So, no, not only do I not think that he should, not only do I reject the idea
00:16:29.020 that he should have been criticized for that decision, I think he should be praised for that
00:16:33.360 decision because he struck a pretty bold move. You know, a lot of people on the left, for example,
00:16:39.200 Cecile Richards, CEO of Planned Parenthood, she was on MSNBC last night and she was talking about
00:16:49.060 how worried she is about Roe v. Wade being overturned. And she was saying there are at
00:16:54.420 least a dozen cases that are just one decision away from going to the Supreme Court that are related to
00:16:59.220 abortion. And I haven't even heard conservatives say that. So, to me, the fact that people on the
00:17:04.520 left and pro-choice people are so worried about that tells me that Kavanaugh probably has a pretty
00:17:10.760 strong pro-life constitutionalist record. If he didn't, then they wouldn't be so worried about that.
00:17:18.120 But the fact that they are shows me, number one, Kavanaugh is probably not going to rule in the way
00:17:22.660 that people like Planned Parenthood want him to. And then also, it shows me that they believe that
00:17:28.660 Roe v. Wade isn't constitutionally sound. Because if Roe v. Wade was constitutionally sound,
00:17:34.140 they wouldn't be worried about it being overturned, right?
00:17:36.980 Well, I'll tell you, Ali, I think that the idea of overturning Roe v. Wade has been a scare tactic
00:17:42.700 that the left has been using for decades now. The reality is there are nine justices on the Supreme
00:17:48.320 Court. You need five to overrule Roe. There is only one justice on the Supreme Court who is on record
00:17:54.620 saying he would overrule Roe, and that's Clarence Thomas. I'm a pro-life American. I want to see
00:18:00.980 Roe v. Wade overruled. I believe and I hope that one day that's going to happen. I do not think it
00:18:07.220 turns on this Supreme Court appointment. I do not believe that it is likely that Roe will be overturned
00:18:16.300 any time in the near future. What I do believe will happen is that we will see a significant
00:18:24.780 that what I think most Americans, what polls show most Americans see as common sense restrictions
00:18:33.020 on abortion, such as stopping late-term abortions, stopping pain-capable abortions, where after 20
00:18:41.000 weeks an unborn child, their nervous system is formed and they can actually feel the physical
00:18:45.740 agony of being torn apart or burned inside a mother's womb. I mean, just horrible, horrible,
00:18:52.200 barbaric practices. I believe that legislation like that would be upheld in the direction that
00:18:59.840 the Supreme Court is going. And I think the left knows that the vast majority of Americans support
00:19:05.420 those restrictions. And so instead, they try and make it all about overruling Roe, which frankly,
00:19:11.360 I just do not believe turns on this Supreme Court pick. What do you think the possibility is? A lot of
00:19:17.380 people are saying the same thing that you are, and also that it could go to the states. And so
00:19:22.240 obviously, states already have the right to kind of make some of their own regulations on abortion. But
00:19:27.140 would it be possible that a state could absolutely ban abortion if that happens from the Supreme Court?
00:19:34.760 Oh, actually, I should make clear what happens. If Roe v. Wade were overruled, that's what it would do
00:19:41.160 is send the issue completely back to the states. Okay. So there's not a way that Roe v. Wade is not
00:19:48.020 overruled, and it goes to the states only if it was overruled, would all the power go to the states?
00:19:54.900 Only in so far. If Roe is overruled, it doesn't criminalize abortion anywhere. If Roe is overruled,
00:20:01.720 it doesn't create pro-life policy. What Roe did is it took a pure state issue, and it federalized it
00:20:09.240 entirely in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. To the extent that the Supreme Court issues pro-life
00:20:16.600 decisions, all they're doing there is handing authority a piece of the time back to the states.
00:20:22.460 Overruling Roe would hand it entirely back to the states. When I speak about the Supreme Court
00:20:28.220 upholding common sense restrictions on abortion, like, again, stopping abortions from pain-capable
00:20:35.800 unborn children, or stopping sex selection abortions, saying that you can have an abortion
00:20:40.620 just because you don't want to have a girl. So if it's a girl baby, you just go ahead.
00:20:44.300 Oh, so that's something that's happened. I mean, I guess, yeah, that's something that would be
00:20:47.900 happening in the United States. If you can get an abortion anywhere, what's stopping someone from
00:20:51.960 just saying, you know, I don't want a girl, so I'm going to get an abortion? I hadn't even
00:20:55.220 thought about that. In fact, it happens. It happens a lot. In some countries, it's a driving
00:21:01.700 force. Right, like China. But in this country, Planned Parenthood has opposed legislation that
00:21:10.400 would say that you can't do that. So I think it shows how radical they are on this issue and NARO and
00:21:15.740 their supporters. Insofar as those would be the kind of restrictions that then a state would be able
00:21:21.540 to pass that I think the new U.S. Supreme Court would uphold. So I think that kind of common sense
00:21:29.220 issue of giving parts of this issue back to the state, not telling states that they have to do it.
00:21:34.720 I'm sure if you live in New York or Massachusetts or California or Illinois, it's still going to be
00:21:40.940 abortion on demand in those states. And even if you live in a state that passes some of these
00:21:45.840 common sense restrictions on abortion, you might have to drive a couple hours to a pro-abortion
00:21:51.660 state next door. But you're still going to be able to get an abortion. Yeah, that's exactly right.
00:21:56.920 You could still, if you live in Indiana, interstate travel is a constitutional right. So you could still
00:22:02.800 drive across state lines to Illinois and get whatever abortion you're trying to get there. So that's why I
00:22:10.020 see this as such a scare tactic from the left where they talk about things that are just
00:22:16.180 counterfactual that are not at all true. It's like they're, I mean, they're basically saying this is
00:22:21.420 the handmaid's tale and that, uh, you know, Christian conservatives, which I am a Christian
00:22:25.580 conservative. I would love, uh, if abortion didn't just go away, but also that women felt like it was
00:22:31.880 unnecessary, that they felt like they had the resources that they need to actually raise the
00:22:36.540 child or put the child up for adoption. And there's so many non-government pro or program or
00:22:41.720 organizations really that are helping that and allowing that to happen. So my dream would be not
00:22:47.340 only that Roe is overturned, that, you know, abortion is banned everywhere, which is probably
00:22:51.040 never going to happen, but also that women don't feel like they need to have an abortion. But you never
00:22:57.180 hear that from Democrats. You never hear, we want to create a world in which this atrocity of
00:23:04.420 abortion is not even thinkable or necessary. It's almost like they celebrate it. And when they're
00:23:10.740 talking about who they want on the Supreme court, you never hear Planned Parenthood or NARAL talk about,
00:23:17.720 you know, we want someone who's going to uphold the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade. We want someone
00:23:23.300 who sticks to the constitution and we believe that Roe v. Wade is going to be held up. They're only
00:23:28.840 talking about someone who is a political activist. And I think that's why they would be so
00:23:34.380 upset by anyone that Trump had nominated because they are only looking for someone that's going to
00:23:40.700 uphold their agenda. That's not what the Supreme court is supposed to do.
00:23:44.160 Well, and, and in this case, uh, again, it's, this is a discussion that we may all end up having
00:23:51.100 five years from now where we may, may end up having 10 years from now, but right now in 2018,
00:23:57.340 you know, the, the left is trying to obscure everything by saying that this is the issue,
00:24:02.780 uh, that they're trying to make this about when again, I'm, I'm persuaded that even though I'm
00:24:07.640 pro-life, that the fate of Roe does not hang in this nomination. Uh, there are so many issues
00:24:13.020 beyond. Yeah. Go ahead. Why, why, why is that? Why do you feel like it doesn't hang on this nomination?
00:24:18.940 Uh, because I'm not confident that we have four votes to overrule Roe right now. Like I said,
00:24:23.960 we only have one on record. We might have two, we might have three. Uh, I I'd be, uh, maybe we have
00:24:30.820 four, but I'd be surprised if we do. And if we're not at four, then this pick doesn't get you to five.
00:24:36.060 Uh, and, um, and again, and that's where I think insofar as abortion is involved at all
00:24:42.160 in this nomination, I think that that's where we're talking about common sense restrictions that
00:24:46.560 the super majority and overwhelming majority of Americans support, but also it is, we're talking
00:24:52.500 about the totality of law, the rule of law in this country. And that's every issue that's religious
00:24:58.680 liberty. That's free speech. That's the free exercise of religion. That's the second amendment.
00:25:04.340 That's the 10th amendment. That's immigration. That's healthcare. That's federal regulation.
00:25:09.420 Right. Uh, that's the size and reach of the federal government. All of that is what's involved
00:25:14.340 here. And what that all turns on is the philosophy by which a justice interprets the U S constitution.
00:25:21.760 And that is the one thing that the critics in this situation do not want to talk about. They don't
00:25:28.800 want to admit that this is a choice about, uh, uh, about someone who says that he believes his role
00:25:34.540 as a justice is to follow the law, the way it's written and to interpret the constitution according
00:25:40.220 to its original meaning and leave all of these issues to the American people to decide for themselves
00:25:46.540 that he understands that the Supreme court is not designed as a super legislator to sit there as a
00:25:52.840 bunch of philosopher Kings dictating to all of us, every aspect of how we're going to live in our life
00:25:58.400 that in, that in our democratic form of government, unelected judges have a small and modest role
00:26:05.620 empowering the people to make most decisions for themselves. And that's what I heard judge Kavanaugh
00:26:10.740 promise that he would do as a justice on the Supreme court. That's what the president promised.
00:26:16.020 And that's what the American people want. At first Liberty, you guys focus on one of the things
00:26:21.800 that you just talked about, which is religious Liberty. Um, I, I know of one case specifically
00:26:26.600 in 2015 where Kavanaugh ruled that, um, you know, uh, Obama's contraception mandate, uh, put undue
00:26:34.460 burden or was unfair, discriminated against religious organizations who didn't want to be forced to
00:26:40.680 provide or cover, uh, contraception for their employees. Um, how do you think that he is going
00:26:46.920 to rule on cases of religious Liberty? I think judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme court is going to be
00:26:52.180 fantastic on religious Liberty. We've seen multiple decisions from him at the DC circuit where they
00:26:58.920 don't even get as many religious Liberty cases. So even without getting that many of them, the ones that
00:27:04.900 he has gotten, he's hitting home runs on, uh, as, uh, as, uh, the case that you referenced there,
00:27:10.740 the priest for life case, uh, that, uh, judge Kavanaugh was clear that, that, that federal law,
00:27:16.880 and even if the federal law were not there, I would say the U S constitution would do it,
00:27:20.540 but that federal law, the religious freedom restoration act, it's, uh, gives people of faith,
00:27:26.620 uh, the right not to participate and become complicit in abortion, that the Obamacare abortion
00:27:34.020 pill mandate was a substantial burden on religious faith and that in that it was illegal under RFRA
00:27:41.880 and under the U S constitution. That was a perfect decision. Uh, another one is Newdow V Roberts.
00:27:47.540 That's where, uh, a militant atheist activist sued to stop John Roberts as chief justice from using the
00:27:55.160 word. So help me God. When he was administering the presidential oath, uh, the, um, uh, the DC circuit
00:28:02.860 ruled against him with, with judge Kavanaugh writing to say, and this is so important because moderate
00:28:10.220 judges could have sided with using those words, but doing so with real weak milquetoast language called
00:28:18.560 ceremonial deism. And, uh, and where you say ceremonial deism is the idea that some things are
00:28:25.000 just hundreds of years old. So you don't really mean them. They don't really have real religious
00:28:29.900 meaning, but we say them as a matter of tradition, they're just antiquated, they're harmless. And so
00:28:36.060 we let them go because everyone knows they don't really matter. He pushed back against that in his
00:28:40.960 decision. He said that prayer is a sacred act that is a profound importance to countless Americans
00:28:47.660 that, that, that, that they regard it as a sacred obligation to ask for God's divine blessing and
00:28:54.260 guidance on what they're seeking to do. And that it's insulting and demeaning to those people to deny
00:29:00.380 that prayers have meaning to deny that those words mean something. He faced it four square and said on
00:29:07.880 the merits that these things are good. These things are right. And the U S constitution, not only does it
00:29:13.540 not forbid them, it affirmatively protects them. And I thought that was a very bold move in favor of
00:29:19.740 religious liberty. And I think it gave us real insight as to what judge Kavanaugh will be like
00:29:24.580 on the U S Supreme court. I think supporters of religious liberty should be a big supporter.
00:29:29.180 Definitely. I, I say that I think, uh, conservatives should be excited, but really it's anyone who cares
00:29:35.720 about the constitution, which unfortunately today seems to be a more political stance to make. It used to be,
00:29:41.700 I think that it was both Democrats and Republicans who cared about the constitution. There were just
00:29:46.360 different kinds of interpretations of, uh, you know, what you thought the constitution meant,
00:29:51.460 whether it was living and breathing or a dead document. Um, now it seems to me, and I don't
00:29:55.980 want to lump all Democrats and liberals into one category, but it does seem to be that if you care
00:30:01.840 about the constitution, you are a conservative. Um, and so I think conservatives and anyone who cares
00:30:07.800 about the constitution should be happy about this picket, it's clear that he's not going to be some
00:30:12.240 judicial activist. He's going to have a restraint, which I think is something that we can all celebrate.
00:30:17.380 Um, but what do you think, this is the last question. What do you think the battle is going
00:30:22.060 to be like over the next few weeks and months? I mean, is it going to go, is it going to go through?
00:30:28.520 I think Democrats are going to try and make this political Armageddon. I think they're going to throw
00:30:33.600 everything, including the kitchen sink at judge Kavanaugh. I think they will slander him. I think
00:30:40.220 they will vilify him. And at the end of the day, I believe he will get all 50 Republican votes. But
00:30:46.020 more than that, I'll tell you the 10 people who should be freaking out the most right now are the
00:30:51.240 10 democratic senators in Trump States right now, because I believe judge Kavanaugh is going to be
00:30:56.420 very popular in those States. And I don't know how those senators, Joe Donnelly in Indiana and Joe
00:31:02.920 Manchin in West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, their base will demand that they oppose
00:31:10.020 him, but the swing voters that they need, the moderate voters they need to get reelected will
00:31:15.120 demand that he vote for them. And I'll tell you all of those senators, every, the question they're
00:31:21.480 going to be asked every single day between now and the final confirmation vote is, Hey, Senator
00:31:28.340 McCaskill, are you voting yes or no on judge Kavanaugh? And I don't care if she says, Hey,
00:31:33.900 let's talk about North Korea. Let's talk about education. Let's talk about healthcare. Yeah.
00:31:38.080 They're going to say, Hey, we'll get to all that later. Uh, uh, back to my question. Are you going
00:31:42.280 to vote yes or no on judge Kavanaugh from the Supreme court? This just became the number one issue
00:31:47.740 in the 2018 midterm elections in every Senate race and every red state across the country.
00:31:53.980 And it's an answer. And it's a question where any answer that a democratic incumbent gets
00:31:59.500 is going to alienate hundreds of thousands, if not millions of voters that they need to get
00:32:04.720 reelected. So, you know, I mean, they're having a pretty rough day today.
00:32:08.260 Basically this is going to be, which I guess it always is, but especially right now, since it's,
00:32:13.440 it's game time, we only have a few months until the midterms, it's going to be a PR battle
00:32:17.720 because it's going to be certainly Democrats, uh, putting pressure on the public to call their
00:32:24.180 senators, to pressure their senators to, uh, vote against Kavanaugh. Um, but the right conservatives
00:32:30.600 or anyone who wants Kavanaugh to be, uh, appointed or nominated is going to, uh, is going to have to
00:32:37.360 do the same thing. So it's going to be a PR battle of people on the right saying he's such a great guy.
00:32:42.100 This would be great for the country, no matter which side of the aisle that you're on. And then
00:32:45.320 you're going to have people over on the left saying, oh no, he is going to ruin your life.
00:32:49.260 And this is just another step in Trump's America or, uh, Hitler's America is basically the argument
00:32:54.680 that they're going to make. So it's going to be an uphill climb, but Hey, that's been the case
00:33:00.120 since Trump became president. That's what makes this exciting, right? Oh, this is a fight that I
00:33:05.060 think the president should embrace. It's one that, and that I'm sure he does that he welcomes. Uh,
00:33:10.580 this is not frankly, if Democrats were smart, they would want to get this over
00:33:15.200 in a week. Yes. Instead, this is going to go until right up before the midterm election.
00:33:21.560 It will dominate the airwaves every single day in all of the races between now and then
00:33:26.100 every minute that is spent talking about the Supreme court. This is the number one issue for
00:33:31.840 22% of voters. They went for the president by a margin of 57 to 41. Every minute of airtime spent
00:33:38.760 on this issue is going to pick up voters for Republican challengers to those democratic incumbents
00:33:44.760 and give the president a Senate that he can really work with for the second half of this term.
00:33:50.980 You're I mean, I think that's a, that's a really good point because they're not going to be able
00:33:56.060 to focus on immigration, the things that are going on at the border. They're not going to be able to
00:34:00.480 use tariffs at a talk as a talking point, as long as this is going on, this is really all people
00:34:06.880 are going to care about. So I think that's a really good point that I hadn't thought about. Well,
00:34:11.400 I'm really appreciative of you for giving me all of your insight. That was excellent. And I
00:34:16.460 personally learned a lot. Thank you, Ellie. Thanks for having me. God bless. Yes, you too. Thank you.
00:34:21.620 Okay. So there you have it. Our expert on the matter. Um, we are going to stay up to date as this
00:34:27.700 fight ensues, but to end all of this, I'm going to answer a question that's not related to this.
00:34:33.600 You guys send me questions for the podcast on Instagram all the time. And I really appreciate
00:34:37.560 that. Please continue to, or you can send me an email, Allie at the conservative millennial blog.com.
00:34:42.500 I love getting your guys's questions. I get a lot of them, so I can't answer all of them,
00:34:47.180 but I try to answer, I try to answer a couple every week. Anyway. Um, the question that I got
00:34:54.900 is about how to stand firm and love well in a culture that is antithetical to Christianity.
00:35:01.240 And so I think first we have to define love and the world has a different, has a different
00:35:07.860 definition of love than Christians do. The world will tell you that to love means to fully accept
00:35:13.780 someone's lifestyle choices, no matter what absolute and unconditional tolerance. You're
00:35:19.200 not allowed to tell someone that the way they're living is wrong, even if it hurts them, even if you
00:35:24.080 disagree, um, that is not love by the Christian definition. Now, are we supposed to meet people
00:35:29.020 where they are? Are we supposed to love them, um, without judgment, serve them without judgment?
00:35:36.740 Absolutely. But that doesn't mean that we're not supposed to speak truth. To me, the most loving
00:35:40.940 thing that we can do, at least to someone that, you know, I'm not talking about walking up to someone
00:35:45.260 on the street and telling them that you disagree with their lifestyle, but someone that, you know,
00:35:49.680 a friend that you have is to speak the truth in love is to tell them, is to tell them what God says
00:35:55.620 in his word. I mean, there are so many different cultural, sexual, moral issues today that Christians
00:36:00.560 are not allowed to speak up on because we are going to be labeled bigots. But I think the best
00:36:05.360 thing that we can do is to show the world, not just through our actions and our service, our generosity,
00:36:10.920 our selflessness, our sacrifice, just how loving we are, but also in our willingness and our boldness
00:36:16.180 in speaking truth. Because at the end of the day, yes, sure. People are going to call us bigots
00:36:21.400 for taking a stand on particular unpopular issues. But I think that it's okay if we look a little bit,
00:36:31.480 if we look really weird. I mean, think about Christians throughout the centuries and how
00:36:36.680 they've differed from the rest of the world. I think the danger is when our love in our lives
00:36:41.520 start to look like everyone else's definition of how we should love and how we should live.
00:36:46.500 We're supposed to be different. We're supposed to be on the margins of society. Our love should be
00:36:50.560 sacrificial, but it should also be truth-filled. So that means that we need to have compassion as
00:36:55.820 well as moral clarity. So I hope that makes sense. Anyway, thank you guys so much for listening. This
00:37:01.060 was really fun doing a Tuesday podcast and it's videoed. If you don't already subscribe to CRTV.com
00:37:07.260 and you would wish to see my face while I am talking on this podcast, you should do that. You can use
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00:37:16.800 Leave a nice review if you want to. If you have constructive criticism or suggestions for what
00:37:21.960 we should do for this show, please email me. I love hearing your feedback. Like I said,
00:37:26.500 Allie at the conservative millennial blog.com and have a great day.