Three fights Democrats will pick during the Kavanaugh hearings

Democrats have been emphasizing three main areas of attack against Kavanaugh’s record, all of which appeal to the base: access to abortion, of which Kavanaugh’s not a great fan; protection for those with pre-existing conditions, as another legal threat to Obamacare begins its way through the legal system; and Kavanaugh’s expansive views of executive power. On all three issues, Kavanaugh has tried to tell the handful of distantly swayable Republican and Democratic senators with whom he’s met what they’d like to hear. Democrats believe that his lengthy trail of writings and speeches, such as his praise of the dissent in Roe v. Wade, will make it difficult for him to get away with such vague postures as declaring Roe “settled law.”

Just as Democrats focused on the “frozen trucker” case during Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearings to show his pro-business, anti-little-guy leanings, Democrats will highlight how Kavanaugh dissented from an opinion finding that SeaWorld had violated workplace safety standards when an orca named Tilikum attacked and killed one of its trainees during a performance. “When should we as a society paternalistically decide that the risk of significant physical injury is simply too great even for eager and willing participants?” Kavanaugh, unimpressed, wrote. The trainer should’ve known that whale meant business when she took the gig.