Group asks court to force agencies to release Kavanaugh files

A group working to make the Supreme Court more transparent has asked a federal judge to force the government to release tens of thousands of documents related to the past work of Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to the top court.

Fix the Court, along with attorneys with American Oversight, filed the motions in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday. The group is seeking court orders requiring the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), as well as the Department of Justice, to process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that Fix the Court submitted months ago while seeking all nonexempt files on Kavanaugh.

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The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals judge has a lengthy paper trail. He worked for independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation into Former President Clinton, as well as for the George W. Bush White House — first in the counsel’s office and then as Bush’s staff secretary — before being confirmed to the appeals court in 2006.

The National Archives told The Hill last week that it has eight boxes of documents totaling about 20,000 pages of attorney work files on Kavanaugh that have not yet been made public.

Fix the Court filed lawsuits last week against the National Archives and the Department of Justice to force the agencies to comply with FOIA requests it filed with the Justice Department in September and the National Archives in April.

The group is being represented in court by American Oversight, an independent watchdog.

“Fix the Court was still in litigation with the Justice Department over the release of Neil Gorsuch documents more than five months after he had been sworn in as a justice,” Gabe Roth, Fix the Court’s executive director, said in a statement.

“We’re not going down that road again. Given the size of Kavanaugh record and the expected timeline to confirmation, we must be more assertive to guarantee a full vetting.”

In the motions for preliminary injunctions, Fix the Court argued the documents are needed to properly vet this nominee to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court.

“Judge Kavanaugh brings to his nomination a lengthy career demanding thorough public scrutiny, and the non-public record of his activities before his appointment to the federal bench holds high value to the public,” the group wrote.

“With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.] promising to fast track confirmation proceedings (with cooperation and coordination with the Trump administration), NARA’s failure to meet its FOIA obligations now threatens to deprive Fix the Court and the American public of information essential to ensure that Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment receives rigorous, informed debate—in the Senate and among the general public—appropriate for a critical post in a representative democracy.”