Kavanaugh Sided With U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Big Businesses Associations in 76 Percent of Cases
Aug. 30, 2018
Kavanaugh Sided With U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Big Businesses Associations in 76 Percent of Cases
Public Citizen Examined Past Decisions Involving Chamber, National Association of Manufacturers and American Petroleum Institute
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh usually ruled in favor of three big business associations during his time on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Public Citizen’s U.S. Chamber Watch project said in a report released today.
In cases that came before him and in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers or the American Petroleum Institute participated as a party or amicus curiae, Kavanaugh sided with the groups 25 out of 33 times, or 76 percent.
“Over the past several decades, big business associations, led by the Chamber, have become far more active in federal litigation,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “The involvement of these associations signals to judges what the Chamber and other trade associations believe to be important.”
Also today, Public Citizen released a memo (PDF) analyzing Kavanaugh’s decisions in which corporations have used the First Amendment as a tool to challenge regulation of economic activity that traditionally would not have been viewed as raising free speech issues. His judicial opinions broadly embrace expansion of the First Amendment to protect commercial activity.
These findings follow a Public Citizen report released Wednesday that found Kavanaugh decided or wrote an opinion against the public interest 87 percent of the time in split-decision cases in five key areas, including consumer, environmental and worker rights cases.
U.S. Senate hearings on Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court are scheduled to begin next week.
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