More prominent figures in the DC area have thrown their weight behind President Trump’s Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh. Senior representatives from Washington Jesuit Academy and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which is based in Alexandria, wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee voicing their support of the judge before his highly anticipated confirmation hearings, which are scheduled to begin Tuesday.
In letters exclusively obtained by Washingtonian to chairman Senator Chuck Grassley and ranking member Senator Dianne Feinstein, Washington Jesuit Academy’s founding president, William B. Whitaker, and IACP president Louis M. Dekmar praised Kavanaugh’s moral character in a manner similar to a letter in early August from District parents whose children Kavanaugh coached in youth basketball.
Dekmar lauds Kavanaugh’s “firm understanding of, and a deep appreciation for, the challenges and complexities confronting our nation’s law enforcement officers” during the judge’s 12-year tenure on US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. He urges Grassley and Feinstein push Kavanaugh’s nomination through to the Senate for a vote.
Whitaker’s plea to the committee is much more personal. Kavanaugh has for the last two years been a volunteer tutor at the Jesuit school, which serves low-income boys. Whitaker says this act of service is emblematic of Kavanaugh’s character. His letter reads, in part:
“I am not writing about politics, religion, or one’s jurisprudence. I am writing to provide personal insight on Brett Kavanaugh’s moral character, based simply on what I have observed while he served as a volunteer tutor at WJA and more recently as a member of our Board of Directors. And while most know him as Judge Kavanaugh, I’ve only ever known him as Brett Kavanaugh.”
According to Whitaker, Kavanaugh’s ability to motivate young boys to finish their homework and perform academically made him a mentor and a role-model. “Often if Brett’s study group finished their homework early, conversations about simple life lessons would evolve,” he adds. He ends by noting Kavanaugh helped these students “Without fanfare, without attention, without anyone watching.”
If confirmed, Kavanaugh would be the second Washington native on the bench, joining high-school classmate Neil Gorsuch.
Brittany Shepherd covers the societal and cultural scene in political Washington. Before joining Washingtonian as a staff writer in 2018, Brittany was a White House Correspondent for Independent Journal Review. While she has lived in DC for a number of years now, she still yearns for the fresh Long Island bagels of home. Find her on Twitter, often prattling on about Frasier.
