Rand Paul backs Trump nomination for Supreme Court

Republished with permission by Knowhere News

Republican Sen. Rand Paul (KY) said Monday that he will support President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, after previously expressing concern over his positions on privacy issues.

“After meeting Judge Kavanaugh and reviewing his record, I have decided to support his nomination,” Paul tweeted Monday. “No one will ever completely agree with a nominee (unless, of course, you are the nominee). Each nominee, however, must be judged on the totality of their views, character, and opinions.”

Paul met with Kavanaugh this month, according to Paul’s chief strategist Doug Stafford, because he was concerned about Kavanaugh’s opinion on George Bush-era policies related to the collection of phone records and other data in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Speaking after Kavanaugh was nominated, Paul said he was not satisfied with a short concurring opinion written by the judge in a 2015 case, Klayman v. Obama, which was a constitutional challenge to metadata collection by the NSA.

Despite Paul’s initial misgivings, he claims that he was convinced of Kavanaugh’s character and pedigree after meeting with the nominee last week for over an hour. In a statement released Monday, Paul expressed hope that Kavanaugh “will be more open to a Fourth Amendment that protects digital records and property.”

“Of course, my vote is not a single-issue vote, and much of my reading and conversation has been in trying to figure out exactly how good Judge Kavanaugh will be on other issues before the Court,” Paul said on Twitter.

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