Supreme Court Nominations: Background Reading for Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s Nomination


July 13, 2018

Interested in learning more about Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court seat vacated by retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy? The following resources are a great place to start:

  • Georgetown Law Library’s Supreme Court Nominations Research Guide : This resource provides an explanation of the nomination and confirmation process, along with individualized collections for recent Supreme Court nominees. The collection of materials for Judge Kavanaugh includes links to biographies, transcripts from hearings related to his nomination to the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, a selection of notable decisions authored by him, a list of his publications, and videos of various speeches.
  • Library of Congress – Presidential Nominations : This collection from the Library of Congress website contains additional books/articles written by Judge Kavanaugh, along with some of his noteworthy opinions and transcripts from his confirmation to the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

If you would like to learn more about the overall process for Supreme Court nominations and confirmations, the following resources are a good place to start:

Update (9/07/2018): The University of Virginia School of Law has completed its Kavanaugh Project, which provides access to Judge Kavanaugh’s opinions (majority, concurrence, and dissent) during his tenure on the United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit. There are options to browse the opinions via topic or to keyword search in the full text of all opinions.