President’s Supreme Court Pick Favors Deregulation

Last week, President Trump named the second nominee of his presidency to the U.S. Supreme Court, DC Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh. As Justice Kennedy’s replacement, whoever is eventually confirmed will make a critical difference in the makeup of the Court and have an impact for decades to come – and if it’s Kavanaugh, that could be very good for small businesses and very bad for federal regulations. A profile in The Atlantic magazine concludes that Kavanaugh’s record reflects an unequivocal skepticism about federal regulations of corporations. Kavanaugh has written 40 opinions finding agency action to be unlawful and has joined majority opinions reversing federal regulatory actions in at least 35 additional cases. Given the high cost of compliance with federal regulations for the ready mixed concrete industry, having an advocate on the Court would be a boon.

In 2017, NRMCA applauded President Trump’s promise to nominate justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia and was pleased with the nomination and confirmation of Neil Gorsuch. During Justice Gorsuch’s first term on the Court, he aligned most with Justice Clarence Thomas, considered the most conservative of the Supreme Court justices. Recent analyses of Kavanaugh have suggested that he, too, would be similarly conservative. Whether Brett Kavanaugh is in fact as conservative as Justices Gorsuch and Thomas, it is heartening that President Trump’s nominee is anti-regulation.