House Judiciary Dems request Brett Kavanaugh records from National Archives

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee asked the National Archives and Records Administration on Tuesday to hand over records pertaining to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's service under the Bush administration.

What are the details?

House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Chairman Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) wrote a letter to the head of the National Archives, asking for documents related to Justice Kavanaugh's time in President George W. Bush's administration from 2001 to 2006.

The letter stated that the Supreme Court may, in the coming year, "review certain high-profile cases related to reproductive rights, the separation of powers, and the limits of executive authority."

The Washington Examiner noted that "Senate Democrats, during his initial confirmation hearing, seized on Kavanaugh's writings about abortion during his time in the White House counsel's office, including a 2003 email in which he appeared to question the view that the Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion was 'settled law.'"

Nadler and Johnson went on to say that the Judiciary "Committee's jurisdiction encompasses the laws governing judicial ethics and the judicial oath of office; judicial disqualification, and misconduct; and the organization of the Supreme Court" in explaining the reasoning behind their request.

The Democrats argued that the Senate Judiciary Committee "received only a small fraction" of Kavanaugh's White House record following a request from Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) during the justice's nomination hearings, and insisted that further documents be supplied "on a rolling basis."

Anything else?

According to NBC News, Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) issued a statement in response to Nadler's archives request, calling it "so far outside the scope of judicial ethics, it's harassment."

"Judiciary Democrats failed in their attempt to relitigate the Mueller investigation, so now they're pivoting to attack a sitting Supreme Court Justice by reinvestigating issues examined during his Senate confirmation," Collins said. "When are we going to move on from the smear campaigns, and being working on real, bipartisan solution to improve the lives of the Americans we were elected to represent?"