Brett Kavanaugh

His mother taught history at two Washington high schools through the 1960s and 1970s, took a law degree at American University in 1978, and sat as a Maryland circuit judge from 1995 to 2001. His father ran a trade association for the cosmetics and toiletries industry. The son grew up in Bethesda and went to Georgetown Prep, a Jesuit boys' school, where he captained the basketball team, played wide receiver and cornerback, sat two years ahead of Neil Gorsuch and was a classmate of Mark Judge. Yale took him in 1983 and he came out in 1987 with a history degree, then Yale Law in 1990. Three clerkships followed, the last with Anthony Kennedy in the 1993 term, in chambers he would occupy himself 25 years later.

He went to work for Kenneth Starr. He reopened the investigation into the 1993 death of Vincent Foster and spent three years reaching the conclusion the first inquiry had already reached, that it was suicide. In 1998 he argued his only Supreme Court case, asking the justices to strip attorney-client privilege from a dead man's conversations with his lawyer, and lost 6 to 3. That September he was a principal author of the Starr Report, which argued for Clinton's impeachment and set out the sexual encounters in a detail its authors called essential. He joined Bush's Florida recount team in December 2000, then the White House counsel's office, then the staff secretary's desk in July 2003. Bush nominated him to the D.C. Circuit that same month. The Senate took almost three years and confirmed him 57 to 36.

Trump nominated him on July 9, 2018. Christine Blasey Ford's account became public on September 16, and on September 27 she told the Judiciary Committee that he had pinned her to a bed at a Maryland house party in the early 1980s, groped her and covered her mouth with his hand. He said he was innocent of the charge and denied it categorically. A supplementary FBI inquiry reached the committee on October 3, the White House said the next day it found no corroboration, and Ford's lawyers said it had not been designed to find any. Leland Keyser, whom Ford named as present, said she had no memory of the party and also said she believed Ford. Deborah Ramirez's account produced no eyewitness. One anonymous accuser later admitted inventing hers. The Senate confirmed him 50 to 48 on October 6.

He took Kennedy's seat and moved the Court. By one measure only Clarence Thomas sits to his right. He joined the majority that overruled Roe in June 2022 and wrote the opinion that threw out the challenge to mifepristone on standing. He dissented in Bostock. In September 2025 he concurred in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, writing that apparent ethnicity cannot by itself justify a stop but can count as one factor, and critics attached his name to the detentions that followed. A man came to his Maryland house on June 8, 2022 with a pistol, zip ties and a crowbar, called the police on himself, and was sentenced in October 2025 to 97 months. Nothing about the reputation is settled.

Brett Kavanaugh's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• The Starr Report other
  He was a principal author of the case for impeaching Bill Clinton 1998
• Separation of Powers During the Forty-Fourth Presidency and Beyond article
  Minnesota Law Review. He argued Congress should shield sitting presidents from suits and investigation 2009
• Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer and White Sales, Inc. case
  His first Supreme Court opinion, unanimous, on arbitration 2019
• Reed v. Goertz case
  His majority opinion let a Texas death row inmate seek DNA testing 2023
• FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case
  His majority opinion held the challengers could not sue over mifepristone 2024
• Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, concurrence case
  Apparent ethnicity may count as one factor in reasonable suspicion 2025

• 1990 aged ~25 Graduates from Yale Law School and starts the first of three clerkships
• 1994 aged ~29 Finishes a clerkship for Justice Anthony Kennedy
• September 1998 aged 33 The Starr Report is released He had already spent three years reinvestigating Vincent Foster's suicide.
• July 2003 aged 38 Becomes White House staff secretary and is nominated to the D.C. Circuit
• May 26, 2006 aged 41 Confirmed to the D.C. Circuit, 57 to 36, after nearly three years
• July 9, 2018 aged 53 Trump nominates him to succeed Anthony Kennedy
• September 27, 2018 aged 53 He and Christine Blasey Ford testify before the Judiciary Committee He told the committee repeatedly that he liked beer, asked Senator Sheldon Whitehouse whether he did too, and later apologized to Senator Amy Klobuchar for asking whether she had ever blacked out.
• October 6, 2018 aged 53 Confirmed to the Supreme Court, 50 to 48
• June 8, 2022 aged 57 An armed man arrives at his Maryland home and calls the police on himself Nicholas Roske was sentenced on October 3, 2025 to 97 months and lifetime supervised release.

• Bill Clinton b. 1946
  42nd president whose centrist politics, economic agenda, and impeachment shaped the post-Cold War era. built the impeachment case against
• George W. Bush b. 1946
  43rd president who led the country after the September 11 attacks and launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. staff secretary to
• Donald Trump b. 1946
  Businessman, media personality, and 45th and 47th president whose populist movement transformed American politics. nominated by
• Neil Gorsuch b. 1967
  Supreme Court justice known for textualist statutory interpretation and skepticism of agency deference. two years behind him at Georgetown Prep
• Clarence Thomas b. 1948
  Long-serving justice whose originalist opinions have strongly influenced modern conservative jurisprudence. the only justice to his right by one measure
• John Roberts b. 1955
  Chief justice during major decisions on health care, elections, executive power, abortion, and administrative law. chief justice expected to hold the middle after him