Kavanaugh urged Supreme Court to avoid decisions on Trump finances, abortion: report

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a series of memos to his colleagues on the nation’s highest court urging them not to take up recent cases on Louisiana abortion regulations and Democratic subpoenas for President Trump’s financial records, CNN reported Wednesday.

The justice recommended his colleagues avoid ruling on the merits of the Louisiana law, a case viewed by both pro- and anti-abortion rights groups as the high court’s first chance to revisit the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision since President Trump appointed Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch to the court. Under his proposal to return the case to a lower trial court, the law would not have taken immediate effect but the justices would not have put their views on it on record. The court ultimately ruled 5-4 against the law.

Kavanaugh also proposed the court sidestep a ruling on the House subpoena for the president’s financial records, saying a decision would have meant the court taking sides in a political dispute. He would ultimately join six of his fellow justices in ruling that Trump had to comply with the subpoena if the House could justify its request but did not need to immediately do so. In a separate case involving a subpoena from Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch both ruled in the DA’s favor.