Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will be introduced by Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and liberal lawyer Lisa Blatt at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing next week.
Portman and Rice both worked with Kavanaugh in George W. Bush’s White House.
Blatt, a former clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, wrote an opinion piece in Politico supporting Kavanaugh’s appointment, much the same way that Neal Katyal, who was acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama, supported the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch last year.
In her opinion piece earlier this month, titled “I’m a Liberal Feminist Lawyer. Here’s Why Democrats Should Support Judge Kavanaugh,” Blatt called the nominee “supremely qualified” and said that “we all benefit from having smart, qualified and engaged judges on our highest court, regardless of the administration that nominates them.”
The hearing, set to start Sept. 4, is expected to last three or four days, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley previously said.
Kavanaugh, 53, was tapped by President Donald Trump last month to fill the spot left on the court by retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. He needs just 50 Senate votes to be confirmed.
Since his nomination, there has been an ongoing fight between Democrats and Republicans over access to the conservative judge’s records. Earlier this month, the committee began releasing some documents related to his work in the early 2000s, but did not include documents from his time serving in the White House from 2003 to 2006.
Kavanaugh currently serves as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
CNN’s Joan Biskupic and Manu Raju contribute to this report.