In remarks made at the hearing on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Senator Chuck Grassley portrayed Kavanaugh’s time as Staff Secretary as irrelevant to his role as a judge.

But those remarks fly in the face of comments made by Kavanaugh himself, who pointed to the importance of his years as Staff Secretary during remarks at the opening session of the ninetieth Annual Meeting of the American Law Institute:

“When people ask me which prior legal experience has been most useful for me as a judge, I tell them I certainly draw on all of them, the clerkships, private practice at Kirkland, Independent Counsel’s office, even college jobs on the Hill at Ways and Means, but the five-and-a-half years in the White House, especially the three years as Staff Secretary for President Bush, are among the most interesting and most instructive, and so many memories come to mind and I think about so often.”

– Judge Brett Kavanaugh, 5/20/13

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