President Trump nominates D.C. Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy’s vacancy on the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh generally brings a pragmatic approach to judging, although his judicial philosophy has applied principles of textualism and originalism espoused by the late Justice Antonin Scalia. President George W. Bush first nominated Kavanaugh to the D.C. Circuit on July 25, 2003 and he was eventually confirmed by the Senate on May 26, 2006, by a vote of 57-36.

After graduating from Yale College in 1987 and Yale Law School in 1990, Kavanaugh spent two years as a law clerk for Judge Walter Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit and Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He followed a one-year fellowship in the office of U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth Starr with a clerkship for Justice Anthony Kennedy during October Term 1993. Kavanaugh went on to join Starr at the Office of the Independent Counsel, where Kavanaugh led the investigation into the death of Vince Foster, an aide to President Bill Clinton, and helped write the 1998 Starr Report to Congress, which outlined 11 grounds for Clinton’s impeachment. Kavanaugh was later a partner at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, where he specialized in appellate law. He moved to the White House after President George W. Bush was elected and worked in the West Wing for five years, first as a counsel to the president and then as staff secretary to the president

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