Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Credit: Aaron P. Bernstein/Bloomberg

On the second day of his confirmation hearing Wednesday, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh plunged into controversial issues, answering questions ranging from abortion rights to gun control and the scandal surrounding Judge Alex Kozinski for whom he once clerked.

The hearing was interrupted by protesters as it was on Tuesday, but soon the proceedings settled down as the questioning from senators began.

Kavanaugh seemed at ease with the back-and-forth, waving a dog-eared copy of the U.S. Constitution as he repeatedly promised to adhere to precedent and the independence of the judiciary. “No one is above the law,” Kavanaugh said.

Republican senators portrayed Kavanaugh as an open-minded judge who has ruled for and against corporate interests. Democrats grilled Kavanaugh on social issues, and examined his time in the George W. Bush White House.

What follows are some highlights from Kavanaugh's responses to questions:

➤➤ On the precedent of Roe v. Wade: “Roe is settled law as a precedent entitled to respect. It has been reaffirmed many times over 45 years, most prominently in 1992 in Casey. Casey reaffirmed Roe based on stare decisis factors. Casey is precedent on precedent. It's not as if it's just a run-of-the-mill case that was decided and never been reconsidered, but Casey specifically reconsidered it, applied the stare decisis factors and decided to reaffirm it. That makes Casey a precedent on precedent.” He also said that adhering to precedent is “the foundation of our system.” He noted in a dialogue with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee: “I don't live in a bubble. I understand the importance of the issue.” Numerous cases that seek to restrict the abortion right are playing out in federal trial and appellate courts now.

➤➤ Kavanaugh said he was “shocked” by the harassment allegations against now-retired Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit, for whom he clerked. Kavanaugh said he was not aware of the allegations against Kozinski until they surfaced last year in a Washington Post report. “When they became public, the first thought I had [was] no one should be subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace ever, including in the judiciary, especially in the judiciary. When I heard, it was a gut punch. It was a gut punch for me. It was a gut punch for the judiciary. I was shocked, and disappointed, angry, swirl of emotions.”

Kavanaugh praised the judiciary's effort to address sexual harassment through a working group and new reporting mechanisms. “I'm interested in doing everything I can to assist those efforts to make those workplaces safe,” he said. He added: “It's part of a broader national problem.”

➤➤ Kavanaugh touted his hiring of women law clerks. “I made sure, talking with professors at law schools, that I want to see a broad pool of well-qualified applicants, including women.” Kavanaugh said he confronted a “pipeline problem,” and pushed law school professors to break through it. “If confirmed to the Supreme Court, I will continue to do this. What it takes is just not accepting the same old answer, 'Oh, there is a disparity.' Well why, and then do something about it.” More than half of Kavanaugh's law clerks were females.

➤➤ Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, confronted Kavanaugh over his relationship during the Bush years with a Republican staffer who reportedly stole emails showing Democratic members' communication about judicial nominees. Kavanaugh at his 2006 hearing denied knowingly receiving any stolen communication. Leahy showed Kavanaugh emails in which the staffer did provide stolen communication. “You weren't concerned with how Mr. Miranda got them?” Leahy asked. Kavanaugh said it was common for White House staffers to communicate with legislative staff about pending nominees. Kavanaugh testified that he did not know he was dealing with anything that was stolen. The hearing devolved into a match between Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Leahy over whether which records were marked “committee confidential” and those that can be freely discussed.

➤➤ On the Second Amendment, which Justice Clarence Thomas has called an “orphan” at the high court. “I fully understand the gang violence, gun violence, drug violence that has plagued various cities, including Washington, D.C. This was known as the murder capital of the world for a while, this city, and there was a lot of handgun violence at the time. And so I understand the issue, but as a judge my job, as I saw it, was to follow the Second Amendment opinion of the Supreme Court whether I agreed with it or disagreed with it.” When Feinstein asserted that assault weapons are not in “common use,” and therefore should not be protected under the Second Amendment, Kavanaugh replied, “I concluded that it could not be distinguished as a matter of law semi-automatic rifles from semi-automatic handguns, and semi-automatic rifles are widely possessed in the United States. There are millions and millions and millions of semi-automatic rifles that are possessed, so that seemed to fit 'common use' in not being a dangerous and unusual weapon. That was the basis of my dissent.”

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