SCOTUS WATCH

Kavanaugh Declines to Say Whether Presidents Must Comply With a Subpoena

Supreme Court nominee calls the question a “potential hypothetical.”

Brett Kavanaugh said Wednesday that he could not answer the “hypothetical question” of whether a sitting president is required to comply with a subpoena. “As a matter of the canons of judicial independence, I can’t give you an answer on that hypothetical question,” Kavanaugh told Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “My understanding is that you’re asking me to give my view on a potential hypothetical. And that’s something that each of the eight justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court, when they were sitting in my seat, declined to decide potential hypothetical cases.” Kavanaugh is expected to face more tough questions from Democrats who have expressed concerns about his views of presidential power. Democrats have highlighted the possibility that President Donald Trump could be subpoenaed by the special counsel as part of the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. As The Daily Beast reported earlier this year, Kavanaugh said in a 1998 Georgetown Law Review article that presidents must obey subpoenas.

—Andrew Desiderio

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