Last week, the Senate held four days of hearings to determine Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s qualifications, judgment, and philosophy to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

As a first year law student at University of Montana, I have been closely following these hearings. These hearings illuminated his shortcomings in judgement, lack of fair-mindedness, and made it painfully clear that his confirmation to the Supreme Court would be bad for Montanans.

Kavanaugh’s past experiences working in the Bush Administration reveal a pattern of poor judgment and bias. Last week, it was revealed that he likely lied under oath about what his involvement looked like in scandals of stolen emails, wiretapping, and controversial judicial nominations. Prior to his time, he was a member of Ken Starr’s investigation and pursued a series of sexually explicit and graphic questioning.

Over the course of his career, Kavanaugh has used his power as a judge to restrict reproductive freedom, limiting a woman’s ability to make decisions about her own reproductive health care. He has restricted access to contraception and even referred to birth control as “abortion inducing drugs” during questioning from the Senate last week. More importantly, his appointment puts the Supreme Court at risk of overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case allowing women safe, legal access to abortion.

Kavanaugh’s current role as a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia has given him the opportunity to allow more money into politics and restrict individual voting rights. He has moved the campaign finance system in the wrong direction by allowing groups, including foreign entities, to raise unlimited funds for issue advocacy. These decisions allow dark money to flow into elections – an issue Montanans are unfortunately all too familiar.

Kavanaugh’s placement on the Supreme Court would hurt Montanans. As a Supreme Court justice, Kavanaugh will continue his history of poor judgment to restrict access to healthcare, limit women’s reproductive freedom, and ensure our elections are only open to those with the biggest pocket books. Kavanaugh’s previous decisions provide a small glimpse of what is at stake for Montanans – a lifetime appointment would result in dangerous repercussions for generations to come.

I encourage Senator Daines and Senator Tester to vote no on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. Montanans deserve a fair-minded, independent judge for our highest court, and nothing less.

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