Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the help and support of many people. We apologize in advance for any we have unintentionally omitted.
Tom Spence has been a major blessing on this project. He has performed the literary equivalent of making a house into a home. He wove our 110,000-word manuscript into a cohesive story. And he did so under the tightest of deadlines and with constant “breaking news” being added to the manuscript even in the final hours of editing.
We are grateful that Marji Ross and Regnery Publishing were willing to take on this whirlwind of a project. Nobody else could have taken us from a signed contract in January to a finished product in July, and we are indebted to them for their trust in us and this project.
Our interns were another major stroke of providence. Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center provided us five thorough, enterprising, and reliable assistants at various points in the writing. Kristyna Skurk and Solomon Chen put in long hours checking and correcting our endnotes and researching the more obscure corners of Supreme Court history. The budding journalist Alexis Nester was intrepid in tracking down and interviewing sources. And Hanna Thullen and Jackson Frerichs assisted in straightening out our timeline of events.
Thank you to our many sources for their generosity with their time and stories, for their patience in explaining to us everything from the intricacies of Senate rules to the conventions of suburban Maryland high school culture. We are grateful to President Trump for the time he afforded us to discuss judicial selection. Thank you to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley for their generosity with their time. We would also like to thank John Abegg, Randy Barnett, Shari Berger, Robert Bork Jr., Jonathan Bunch, Justin Clark, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Mike Davis, Doreen Denny, Julie DeVol, Mario Diaz, Annie Donaldson, Antonia Ferrier, Sara Field, Taylor Foy, George Hartmann, Laura Kaplan, Kerri Kupec, Leonard Leo, Ted Lehman, John Malcolm, Jenny Beth Martin, Gary Marx, Attorney General Ed Meese, Rachel Mitchell, Patricia Miles, Penny Nance, Vice President Mike Pence, Sarah Pitlyk, Mallory Quigley, Ralph Reed, Annabelle Rutledge, Raj Shah, Janae Stracke, Brett Talley, Garrett Ventry, and Helgi Walker.
Carrie Severino
I never planned to write a book. When people close to the Kavanaugh confirmation shared with me their concerns that the books being written on the topic would be biased, I hoped that a respected and principled journalist like Mollie would agree to write the true story. But when Mollie called me, saying she would do it only if I agreed to be a co-author, her partnership gave me the confidence to take on a project that felt totally beyond me. In truth, it still does. Looking back on how many persons we were able to interview and how much information we were able to amass in a mere four months, I’m still not sure how we managed it.
To write a book is one thing, but to co-author a book as involved as this one was daunting in a different way. Would we hate each other by the time the manuscript was finished? How could we split up the work so that neither of us, with her many other obligations, felt unfairly overburdened? It is amazing that we have emerged from that pressure-cooker not only without mutual animosity but as stronger friends and partners. After spending nearly a decade on the other side of the microphone, I have received an intensive apprenticeship in journalism with Mollie that is without parallel. She has taught me to have a healthy skepticism of persons and motives, how to protect my sources, and how to interview for both accuracy and color to give life to the narrative. The icing on the cake is that Mollie came equipped with a husband as astute and articulate as she.
I am profoundly grateful for my colleagues at the Judicial Crisis Network. They shared generously of their expertise on decades of confirmations, identified all the best books on the confirmation process and loaned them out indefinitely, helped dig through facts and remember events, and allowed me the flexibility to take unofficial leave to write. I couldn’t ask for a better group of friends to work with or a better cause to work for.
One of my major inspirations for writing this book has been Justice Clarence Thomas. I spent one year in his chambers, but his commitment to his clerks is lifelong. He has maintained his fidelity to the Constitution and to the oath he took before God despite the scorn of our society’s opinion-makers. But he taught me that such scorn is its own kind of blessing. Knowing that he would never have the applause of the elites freed him from one of the many temptations of a judge. I have seen firsthand the unrelenting ad hominem attacks of the hostile media and legal academy. If, through my work, I can do something to help prevent that from happening to another person, I owe it to the justice to try.
In his memoirs, Justice Thomas recalls the moment when he realized that his confirmation had been transformed from a political battle to a spiritual one. I felt the same during the Kavanaugh confirmation when, on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel (September 29), I began a nine-day prayer novena to Our Lady of Victory, asking for the truth, whatever it was, to be revealed. After a decisive speech at three o’clock on the afternoon of the first Friday in October, Justice Kavanaugh was confirmed on the final day of that novena. There were so many moments of providential grace throughout the writing of this book, I feel my guardian angel deserves co-author credit.
Justice Thomas, reminiscing about his relationship with Justice Scalia, remarked that they connected almost immediately despite their different backgrounds and upbringings. They could anticipate each other’s moves like great dance partners. I am thankful for my great dance partner and husband, Roger, without whose love and support this book would not have been possible. This project—and the confirmation itself—came along when his own job was incredibly demanding, but he never wavered in his encouragement of my work. He adjusted his schedule to be home in time to shuttle children to and from events and to get them ready for school in the morning and for bed at night. He is my advocate when I sell myself short. And he is definitely my better half when it comes to editing. He has the best words.
My six children have amazed me with their patience and fortitude through this whole process. When Justice Kennedy retired in 2018, I warned them it would be a busy summer, but that things would slow down after the hearings in September. In fact, they only sped up. Over and over I told them, “One more week!” And then when it ended, with a brief breather, it started up again with a book which has had its own series of supposedly final deadlines!
I’ve seen them all grow in maturity throughout this process. The eldest three—aged thirteen, ten, and eight—have stepped up to take care of their younger siblings and to make dinner and to clean up, even hosting a cooking competition for us in the midst of the craziness with two delicious three-course meals to show for it. My six-year-old is learning to step up with loving acts of service, and the four- and one-year-old are a constant source of amusement and joy. It’s like having a pair of comic sidekicks around 24-7. I know I have failed at times to strike the elusive balance between work and family, but I hope they, along with me, have learned how to let go of the small things, while focusing on making time for each other when it seems that there is no time to be had.
I never could have managed that balance without the unflappable, loving, and superlatively efficient assistance of Andra Sanchez, our nanny. She has kept the ship of our household running for the past three years with patience, love, and humor.