To defend Alaskans’ rights, confirm Judge Kavanaugh

Alaska is in a unique position when it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court. Without a judicial branch dedicated to protecting our constitutional rights, Alaskans are at the mercy of unelected judges who often seem to be relying more on their personal views than on the law. In a state like Alaska, that can be disastrous.

Federal interests – the kind the Supreme Court routinely hears – dominate our state, which is 60 percent owned by the federal government. Alaska is home to national parks, Indian tribes, wildlife refuges, national forests, military reservations and the North Slope's National Petroleum Reserve.

Federal overreach can threaten Alaskans' access to state waters for recreation, hunting and fishing. It can threaten energy exploration and private-property rights. Too often, we have seen courts automatically defer to administrative agencies on these issues, leaving Alaskans defenseless against rogue bureaucrats.

We're certain that Sen. Lisa Murkowski understands this threat — and that is why Alaska needs her to step up and support Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.

In his dozen years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, he has written hundreds of opinions that confirm his commitment to the Constitution and the rule of law. Thirteen times the Supreme Court endorsed the reasoning he employed in a written opinion. That's no small factor for Alaskans to consider – we reside in the Ninth Circuit, which consistently has one of the highest rates of reversal by the Supreme Court.

Based on his record and experience, Judge Kavanaugh should be a shoo-in for confirmation. Unfortunately, his stellar qualifications are not the standard by which many senators are judging him.

Instead, too many senators are focused on politics and policy. Is the nominee a Republican or a Democrat? What does that mean for my favored policy position? Will he rule in favor of the constituencies who support me?

These are the wrong questions to ask a Supreme Court nominee, or a nominee for any judicial post.

The Supreme Court's role is not to write the law or advance a policy agenda. It is to decide cases based on the law as written and defend the Constitution: both the rights that it guarantees and the structural protections it provides against government overreach.

Judge Kavanaugh has been that kind of judge. There's every reason to expect him to continue to be that kind of Supreme Court justice – the judge as umpire, not as a participant trying to win one for the home team.

"I believe very deeply in those visions of the rule of law as a law of rules, and of the judge as umpire," he said in a speech last year at Notre Dame Law School. "By that, I mean a neutral, impartial judiciary that decides cases based on settled principles without regard to policy preferences or political allegiances or which party is on which side in a particular case."

Not everyone – especially in Washington, D.C. – shares that vision. They want judges who are political, who look at cases as a way to achieve the political victories they can't win legislatively or electorally.

That's why it is so important for Sen. Murkowski, as Alaska's advocate in Washington, to rigorously defend our constitutional rights and, through them, our way of life.

Sen. Murkowski has supported that kind of justice in the past, voting to confirm Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. She also voted to confirm Judge Kavanaugh to the D.C. Circuit in 2006.

She has said she will be deliberate in her consideration this time around, just as she was when considering Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch and countless lower court nominees. On Thursday, she became the final Republican senator to meet with the nominee.

As constituents, we recognize and appreciate her thoughtful due diligence. In the end, though, Judge Kavanaugh is a highly qualified candidate whose record demonstrates that he has earned her support. The right call for Alaska is to support this nominee.

Jeremy Price is the Alaska state director of Americans for Prosperity.

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