In the world of politics, the name Brett Kavanaugh has been mentioned numerous times in these passing months. Why is there so much hype and concern over this man?

Brett Kavanaugh is Donald Trump's nominee for Supreme Court Justice in order to replace the retiring Justice Kennedy. Justice Kennedy has been, for about 30 years now, the famous swing voter between the liberal and conservative justices of the Supreme Court. He has been a saving grace for important rulings such as Obergefell v. Hodges back in June of 2015, which was the court case decision that finally legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states. The case turned in favor of love, 5-4, Justice Kennedy being the swing vote that made it possible. However, in other cases, he has leaned towards conservative values when it came to not allowing the passage of many gun-control regulations and giving leeway to the extent of corporate spending on political campaigns.

Justice Kennedy retired in July of 2018, making room for Donald Trump to nominate Brett Kavanaugh for the next Supreme Court Justice. Brett Kavanaugh is infamously conservative and has people of the left wing fearing for their basic rights, as Kavanaugh holds many of them in his hands. In the past years, we have undoubtedly seen an increase in mass shootings, many of which have been in schools. Due to the vehement belief in the second amendment, the majority republican congress has blocked many attempts at banning automatic and semi-automatic rifles from the hands of the public. There is a natural fear amongst the general public that with appointing Kavanaugh, gun control will turn in the favor of the NRA rather than the public safety. Women are also fearing for their health and reproductive rights with Trump's nominee, due to Trump threatening many times about overturning Roe v. Wade, the court case that allows women to have access to safe and legal abortions.

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However, the main reason why the appointment of Kavanaugh would be controversial is that we are currently amidst the 2018 midterm elections, in which the citizens of the United States are voting for who they would like to represent them in the Senate. This is important because the Senate is who votes to confirm the president's nominee for Supreme Court Justice. This vote goes by majority approval. The anger from more left-wing supporters stems because back in 2016 when Justice Antonin Scalia passed away, President Barack Obama nominated a Supreme Court Justice and the Senate refused to have a hearing with his nominee because the United States was in the middle of the presidential election. They believed that his nominee wouldn't best represent what the citizens of the United States would want. Hypocritically, Republicans are now saying that appointing a Supreme Court Justice in the middle of a mid-term election is completely different than appointing one during a presidential election. Regardless, I think it would be fair to say that this round of senators voting on the next Supreme Court Justice is not adhering to the voice of the people when we are in the middle of voting for who we want to represent us as our senators now.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, defended the Senate's position of ignoring President Obama's supreme court nominee back in 2016 by claiming that the presidential election at the time was politically loaded. Today, right now, the midterms are charged with a different kind of energy: with mass shootings, family separations at the border, the attack on the environment, and many many more parts of this country going awry.

Remember, a Supreme Court Justice does not get voted on by the people; they get voted on by the Senate who should be a fair representation of what people vote for.