President Donald Trump announced Monday night that he was nominating Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, touching off a confirmation process that will shape the Supreme Court for years to come. Now that we have a nominee, here is what to expect next.
What should we expect from the hearings?
The next big formal step in the Senate's consideration of Kavanaugh will be his confirmation hearings. Confirmation hearings have come under fire in recent years as “empty” and “useless,” revealing little new, substantive information. To the extent that judicial nominees are asked to discuss their judicial philosophies in confirmation hearings, research suggests that minority and female nominees are pressed to do so more—indicating that a nominee like Kavanaugh might face fewer such questions. In addition, as work from Maya Sen and William Spaniel argues, a like-minded Senate and president can benefit from keeping the nominee's preferences opaque, as it makes it harder for the nominee to be exposed as sharing the president's views.
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