Democrats vow ‘sparks will fly’ in Kavanaugh hearing

REUTERS, 04th SEPTEMBER, 2018-U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday complained about Republicans blocking access to documents stemming from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s previous work in the White House under President George W. Bush as the conservative judge’s Senate confirmation hearing began.

News photographers clicked pictures of Kavanaugh as he entered the hearing room. After Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley opened the hearing, Democrats protested the withholding of the documents and asked to have the hearing adjourned.

Democrats have demanded in vain to see documents relating to the three years Kavanaugh, nominated by President Donald Trump for a lifetime job on the top U.S. Court, spent as staff secretary to Bush, a job that involved managing paper flow from advisers to the president. Kavanaugh held that job from 2003 to 2006.

Republicans have released some but not all of the existing documents concerning Kavanaugh’s two years as a lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office prior to becoming staff secretary.

If confirmed by a Senate controlled narrowly by Trump’s fellow Republicans, Kavanaugh is expected to move the court - which already had a conservative majority - further to the right. Senate Democratic leaders have vowed a fierce fight to try to block his confirmation.