President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh will have a tough time getting past the confirmation process because of his decisions on Obamacare, religious liberties, and his past comments questioning whether a sitting president can be criminally indicted.
Kavanaugh, 53, is a Yale Law School graduate who clerked for the retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. He has experience in both the George W. Bush administration and the Justice Department, and currently serves as a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals judge.
But his 12-year history of decisions on a federal appeals court could be his biggest liability, according to The Washington Post's Aaron Blake.
"While he has the stamp of approval from the Federalist Society, conservatives have raised concerns about a few of those decisions being a little too wishy-washy, including one on the Affordable Care Act," wrote Blake.
His decisions in religious liberty cases have also sparked concerns.
Kavanaugh in 2009 also wrote "a serious constitutional question exists regarding whether a president can be criminally indicted and tried while in office. . . . The point is not to put the president above the law or to eliminate checks on the president, but simply to defer litigation and investigations until the president is out of office."
Trump is supposedly favoring Kavanaugh in part because of those views, per CNN.
The president, though, is operating with 50 Republican votes and a very legitimate possibility no Democrats will flip, but Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has some reservations about Kavanaugh, including his decisions on healthcare and his work in Bush's White House.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has repeatedly said she would only support Trump's nominee if they respected precedent set by Roe v. Wade when it comes to abortion rights.