Brett Michael Kavanaugh is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He previously served as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and as a staff lawyer for various offices of the U.S. government.Kavanaugh graduated from Yale University cum laude, with a degree in American history. After graduating from Yale Law School, he began his career as a law clerk and then a postgraduate fellow working under Judge Ken Starr. After Starr left the D.C. Circuit to take the position as head of the Office of Independent Counsel, Kavanaugh followed him to the OIC and assisted him with various investigations concerning President Bill Clinton, including the drafting of the Starr Report, which urged Clinton's impeachment. After the 2000 U.S. presidential election , he joined the administration as White House Staff Secretary and was a central figure in its efforts to identify and confirm judicial nominees.Kavanaugh was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President Bush in 2003. His confirmation hearings were contentious; they stalled for three years over charges of partisanship. He was ultimately confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in May 2006 after a series of negotiations between Democratic and Republican U.S. Senators. A Washington Post analysis found he had the most or second-most conservative voting record on the D.C. Court in every policy area between 2003 and 2018.President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on July 9, 2018, to fill the position vacated by retiring justice Anthony Kennedy. Before his nomination, when Kavanaugh's name was on the short list of Supreme Court nominees, Palo Alto University Professor of Psychology Christine Blasey Ford contacted a Washington Post tip line with allegations that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s while the two of them were in high school. Two other women also accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Kavanaugh denied all three allegations. Following a supplemental Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the Committee stated that all allegations were unsubstantiated. After an additional FBI investigation, which Democrats have criticized, the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh's nomination by a vote of 50–48 on October 6, and he was sworn in later that day.
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12. February 1965
