Mr. Kavanaugh, how will you help restore balance and legitimacy to the Court?
If I were a senator interviewing Brett Kavanaugh, I wouldn’t quiz him about how he would rule. He’s clearly well-qualified, and the Republicans are going to approve him anyway.

Instead, I would say “Mr. Kavanaugh, you will unfortunately be entering the court under a cloud. Your predecessor, Mr. Gorsuch, was installed only because Mitch McConnell denied proper Constitutional process to Mr. Garland, purely for political gain. This represents a sort of original sin that threatens our democracy, because it created a situation in which those who are not in Mr. McConnell’s party will forever feel that they were denied their say — and thus will always be unfairly “behind” the other side, denied their turn. And nothing can really ever be done to restore balance now that wouldn’t in turn alienate some other party. It is like a stain that can never be washed away.
This creates a situation that taints the whole Court, which is now threatened with even further imbalance by the replacement of its one moderately conservative “swing” justice with one who is far more conservative. (Plus, Mr. McConnell justified his subversion of Constitutional process by saying an election needed to be held before any justice can be appointed to the court — but yet doesn’t apply that same principle to your appointment.)
All of this only deepens the partisan animosity of an already divided nation, and the sense that large numbers of citizens really have no chance at all for their voices to be heard — have been effectively shut out of the process by which Supreme Court justices are considered and appointed. So you will be entering the Court at what will likely be seen as a pivotal historical moment: one in which the Court’s balance — and legitimacy — have been threatened by extreme politicization.
Mr. Kavanaugh, what can be done to help heal and correct this situation? What can the Court do to help mitigate the effects of this original sin? More to the point, how will you personally carry this heavy burden? What will you do to help heal and correct this situation? How will you restore balance and legitimacy to the Court?
