What Editorials Are Saying About Brett Kavanaugh

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have weighed in on Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's pick to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Now publication editorial boards are having their say, variously painting the conservative judge, who serves on the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia, as "a worthy pick" and a threat to liberal democracy. A roundup of opinions:

• New York Times: "Senate Democrats need to use the confirmation process to explain to Americans how their Constitution is about to be hijacked by a small group of conservative radicals well funded by ideological and corporate interests, and what that means in terms of the rights they will lose and the laws that will be invalidated over the next several decades."

• USA Today: "Democrats will warn that a court with so many conservatives would overturn Roe v. Wade. But a more likely prospect, given the degree to which such a ruling would upend precedent, is a de facto repeal by allowing ever increasing restrictions on abortions."
• Wall Street Journal: "We firmly believe that liberals have much less to fear from a conservative majority than they imagine. A genuinely conservative Court might even help progressives by liberating them to focus once again on the core task of self-government—persuading their fellow Americans through elections, not judicial fiat."
• Washington Post: "Senators must extract an ironclad commitment that Mr. Kavanaugh will act as a check on the president. That's a role he has not seemed comfortable playing in cases involving enemy combatants, or in a law review article suggesting that the president should not be subject to civil or criminal court proceedings while in office."
• National Review: "[Senate Democrats] will portray his concern for the structural limits on government power as a blanket hostility to government, which it is not. And they will cherry-pick decisions in which he ruled against a sympathetic cause or litigant, as is sometimes a judge's duty. They will call him every name in the book. But before too long, they will, as they should, be calling him 'Justice.'"

(More Brett Kavanaugh stories.)