Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. (via YouTube).
If you somehow (stupidly) thought the controversy surrounding Brett Kavanaugh — or should I say Justice Privileged the White — would fade just because he’s been elevated to the Supreme Court, well you haven’t been paying attention. At this point it seems likely that anger and accusations will swirl around the Justice for quite a while, and having open ethics complaints looked into by the Tenth Circuit isn’t going to help matters much.
Just prior to the Senate’s final vote to confirm Kavanaugh last Saturday, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson of the D.C. Circuit released a statement indicating there were open complaints made against Kavanaugh over public statements he made during the confirmation process. The complaints that were found to have merit, 15 in total, were forwarded to Chief Justice John Roberts, where they sat in limbo — which some critics called a “cover up” — until the Chief Justice chose to act on them.
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Yesterday Roberts finally acted on those complaints. In a letter to the Tenth Circuit’s Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich, Roberts transferred the Kavanaugh ethics complaint to the Tenth Circuit, saying:
I have selected the Judicial Council of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to accept the transfer and to exercise the powers of a judicial council with respect to the identified complaints and any pending or new complaints relating to the same subject matter.
Judge Tymkovich is a 2003 George W. Bush appointee, meaning his nomination would have fallen right into that sweet spot when Brett Kavanaugh acted as the judicial nomination shepherd. Amazing how that works! Judge Tymkovich also appeared on the short list of judges considered for a Supreme Court seat — along with Neil Gorsuch and Kavanaugh — because of course he was. It wouldn’t be 2018 without that last bit of salt thrown into the wound.
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).