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~~In-depth analysis~~

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2019

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A portion of yesterday afternoon was spent refreshing my mind about the history of the US Supreme Court including the Presidential nominations and confirmations. I was surprised to learn that FDR had a total of 8 (in his first 6 years) and Ike had 5. We all realize the significance of these confirmations on the future of our country.

Before I purchased this book, I also read the bios of the authors. Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino. Both have diverse careers and involvement with the major television networks.

The book contains information that I have never read before and goes back in our history further than I expected. And, in the case of Judge Kavanaugh it also covers his background information including his hiring of his law clerks. I never thought about a nomination to the Supreme Court Justice being measured not only by their legal opinions rendered but also by their law clerks. Most interesting to me.

Christine Blasey Ford, of course, is covered in detail including the 5 extensions she was given to testify. In actuality, this process in DC is at times staggering. The number of written questions given to Brett Kavanaugh prior to his hearing were staggering. To paraphrase from this book....Scalia - 3 ; Gorsuch - 324 and Kavanaugh - 1287. Wow....

The bias of the media is also presented ...I stopped watching the news on TV at least a year ago. Just from switching the channels, I could see that some of them left out parts of the interviews or answers to some of the questions. One example in this book concerns MSNBC and the ariing of the Georgetown Prep portion. I call this bias by omission and it is certainly prevalent in most of the media. And, there are more examples than this particular one.

All in all, this is an in-depth analysis of not only the Kavanaugh hearings and confirmation but it goes back in our history to other Supreme Court nominations and confirmations.

It is well-written and I believe a most honest presentation of the events leading up to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. And, also the future of the US Supreme Court.

Most highly recommended and for multiple reasons.

matthew p braun

A DC thriller, but real

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2019

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I got to read this book before it came out, and I read it in about 2 days. This is both a historically interesting book about a significant event for our country, as well as a fun, exciting story. The authors clearly had GREAT access to Justice Kavanaugh, and there is new information in here that the public has not seen or heard before. Highly recommended.

DanP

Could not put it down..

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2019

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This would be an unbelievable fiction, it is sad that it is not Fiction, but what really happened in our country.. I have to admire what Justice Kavanaugh had to go through and still wanted to serve our Country..Curious what will happen when President Trump nominates the next Justice...A great read.. Swamp..

C. Hosford

A faithful, riveting account of a nation's moment of madness

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2019

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While unapologetically coauthored by two conservatives, it’s fair to say, “Justice on Trial” is a riveting, enthralling book. I followed the entire hearings at the time, and here in one place is an accurate compilation of the key elements, bookended by a background on vituperative judicial hearings which began with Bork (second chapter), and an extended essay on the future of judicial “originalism” versus “activism” (last chapter). In between is a nail-biting story that just gets weirder and weirder as the venom and looniness increase. It’s the best political book I’ve read since “Game Change” and "Shattered."

One of the strangest chapters is a compilation of the mania of the mobs, beating on doors, being hauled away by the cops, mailing coat hangers to senators, etc. The “fight with everything we have” approach of Schumer, Harris, and Booker culminates on the eve of confirmation with the chapter “All Hell Breaks Loose,” where the woman Ford appears, suddenly, after Feinstein kept Ford's letter secret for 20 days before springing it on the nation at the last minute.

Without taking anything away from the book, there are limitations of the written word compared with the actual videoed hearings. Remember Ford's streamed testimony, with her equivocations, memory lapses, supposed fear of flying, the "second front door" that wasn't, and “recovered memory” 30 years later. She didn’t know the year of the assault, or the house, how she got there, how she got home—a 3 hour walk, we are to believe. Supposed party attendees had no recollection of a party or an assault.

Supposedly she hadn’t wanted to go public, but earlier had contacted the Washington Post, retained a radical lawyer (recommended by Feinstein), took a lie detector test with no transcript available, and scrubbed clean her anti-Trump social postings. Seeing her live and in person, any rational person could tell she was delusional. By contrast, seeing Kavanaugh defend himself against unfounded and unverified charges with passion and conviction—and yes, disgust—is hard to convey by the written word. And yet, “Justice on Trial” does it well.

Regrettably missing from the book (as mentioned by others here) is an investigation into who leaked the letter in the first place—my guess is Sen. Hirono—and a fuller explanation of the final FBI investigation which found no evidence confirming Ford’s assertions and dismissed them out of hand. I can only think that the quick writing turnaround made this further effort impossible. But what we have here is quite enough to illustrate how mad many in the country have become.

About the authors’ conservatism: It comes through most tellingly in their respectful treatment of Ashley and Brett Kavanaugh’s faith. It’s mentioned several times without a hint of a sneer. I can only imagine what subsequent books from others will do with this material. The authors also are plain in their judgement of the haters. The writers’ stupendous amazement is clear at the manic mobs, senatorial F-bombs, spittle-sprayed denunciations, and even (yes) threatened violence between senators. Further, the authors' judgement of blatant media bias with absolutely no exculpatory reporting throughout the hearings rings true and accurate. The reporting is thorough. There is no “bias” when what’s before our very eyes is so obvious. Buy this book.

Sera

Thank You For Telling Us the Truth.

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2019

Thank you for telling the Truth about a hard fought battle for real Justice for a Supreme Court Justice. They almost railroaded this man, his family and ruined his life. Another book about how the deep state will do anything they can to destory this President and any person he has on his cabinet or wants on his cabinet.

dustinm7419

You’re a Trump nominee and Trump fights!

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2019

I just bought this book on my Kindle today! Reading it reminded me of the rage and the grief that I felt watching despicable people bear false witness to try and ruin a good man. One of my favorite lines is when a WH aide reminded Kavanaugh that he was a Trump nominee and “Trump fights.” Heck yeah he does! Really enjoyed the book.

e

What actually happened

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2019

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I devoured this book on release day. It contained so many NEW insightful stories regarding the Kavanaugh hearings, as well as the background on judicial nomination fights that really led to this watershed moment. Refreshing to read that Amy Coney Barrett was almost the pick, god willing she is the pick to replace RBG.

George Bardmesser

Terrific book

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2019

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Even though I already knew most of the details of the Kavanaugh confirmation, this is still an absolutely terrific book. 100% recommend.

Top reviews from other countries

O. G. M. Morgan

The Kavanaugh confirmation hearings: a shocking indictment of American politics.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 28, 2019

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This is an excellently written study of the abominable treatment of Brett Kavanaugh. Smarting from the Republicans' refusal to endorse Merrick Garland as a United States Supreme Court Justice and from the successful promotion of Neil Gorsuch, the Left in the United States really wanted to block any further Republican nomination - by any means.

I am not going to pretend that I believe in any way in the good faith of those who opposed Kavanaugh's confirmation. Just when that seemed about to proceed, Californian Senator Dianne Feinstein suddenly produced a letter on which, it transpired, she had been figuratively sitting for quite some time. The letter contained obscure allegations against Brett Kavanaugh from an academic at a California campus associated with left-wing causes (well, it's in California). The accusations involved events supposedly from when the accuser and Kavanaugh were both still at school. Everything about the claims was vague: date, location, even the basic circumstances. Witnesses were named, but none had any recollection of the purported events.

Yet it was the age of #metoo. The reputations of numerous prominent Democrats had been trashed and the party desperately needed to turn the problem into one for the Republicans. Despite her inability to produce any evidence whatever to support her claims, the accuser was "believed," even though her own untrustworthiness was clearly on display. She supposedly had a terror of flying, which she convolutedly ascribed to her mythical experience with Brett Kavanaugh. Luckily, this fear of aeroplanes didn't kick in when she went on holiday to Hawaii.

It is a flaw in the legal systems on both sides of the Atlantic, apparently, that multiple analogous allegations can be treated as mutually supportive, even when they provide no real support at all, in evidentiary terms. Several accusers now exploited this, as did the left-leaning media. The allegations against Kavanaugh started life as preposterous and went downhill from there, but there was no lack of appetite for them. As the authors point out, "...more than one thousand female Yale Law School graduates signed a letter supporting Kavanaugh's accusers." Nice to know those graduates at least learned, at vast expense, how to write their names, even if they remained a bit sketchy about that whole law thing.

Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino themselves are appropriately judicious, a quality that completely escaped Kavanaugh's antagonists. This very well written book never reads like a polemic, even if it's clear where the authors' sympathies lie. Kavanaugh's appointment was finally confirmed and, as a Supreme Court Justice (surprise, surprise), he has been boringly middle-of-the-road in his opinions.

(That has not, however, stopped the attacks on him. Democrats were plotting to impeach him before and all the way through his confirmation hearings and those threats have not stopped since then. In reality, it is unlikely that the Democrats will ever have enough Senate votes to secure impeachment, so Plan B seems to be to expand the numbers of Supreme Court Justices and pack it with people with left-of-centre opinions and no qualms about legislating from the bench.)

This book is quite a shocking illustration of the state of Washington DC politics today, but that is no reflection on the writers, who deserve every credit for their work.

IJ

Very Insightful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2019

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I found this book very amazing to read and also insightful. Thanks for writing Mollie and Carrie

Fred Toronto

A Page Turner

Reviewed in Canada on July 13, 2019

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Devoured this in two sittings. Giving it 4 stars only because if you followed the Kavanaugh story closely, as I did, there is a lot here that isn't new. Having said that, it does give a good overview of the history of SCOTUS confirmations, and it did reveal the dramatic behind-the-scenes discussions and negotiating that I wasn't aware of.

If you didn't follow the drama closely while it was happening, this book is a great retelling.

John D. Booth

Engrossing

Reviewed in Canada on September 27, 2019

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I'm sure many will complain that this book is written by a couple of authors who are politically conservative and therefore sympathetic to Justice Kavanaugh. No doubt this is true, however the flip-side to this is that this has also gotten the authors unprecedented access to all the major players in the nomination process. There are a ton of insider tidbits and accounts that I don't think more politically hostile would have ever gotten. The authors spend a lot of time dealing with the media coverage of the confirmation process, showing the many instances where the dominant outlets like NYT, WaPo and CNN skewed their reporting to oppose Kavanaugh, often minimizing our outright ignoring facts which did not fit their preferred narrative.

This is a very comprehensive history of the confirmation battle, from the 2016 battle over Merrick Garland through to the final confirmation vote.

Reading carefully

Good book

Reviewed in Canada on August 18, 2019

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I followed the confirmation hearing religiously and the book is ''100%'' accurate. Nice work Mollie and thank you for putting this story on paper so people could really know the real travesti that this Democrates Lynching of a honorable man has been. History will judge this event accordingly.

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