Former US Solicitor General and federal judge Ken Starr vouched for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Tuesday, telling CNN anchor Erin Burnett his former colleague would respect precedent and keep an open mind if it came to the monumental Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.
He “will treat each issue, including these most delicate issues, with an absolute open mind,” said Starr, speaking on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.” “He will also have a great respect for precedent.”
“[H]e can not have made and he will not have made a commitment to vote in any particular way on any particular issue,” he continued. “Why? It would really be inconsistent with the integrity of the judicial process and frankly, it would be inconsistent with the oath to say ‘this is the way I am going to vote.’”
“If I know Brett Kavanaugh, and I do, he will not have promised to vote in a particular way,” Starr added. “He will… say ‘I will listen to any position within reason and I’ll listen to it respectfully.’”
Kavanaugh’s paper trail is central to nomination fight
Kavanaugh first worked for Starr in a one-year fellowship with the office of the Solicitor General of the United States before clerking for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. He worked for Starr again in the 1990s as an associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel during the investigation into President Bill Clinton’s conduct and played a crucial role in writing the Starr Report.