published Aug 20, 2018, 6:34:11 PM, by Steven T. Dennis
(Bloomberg) —

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces a crucial test Tuesday when he sits down for a meeting with Republican Senator Susan Collins, who plans to ask him about abortion and other topics.

Collins said she intended to talk to Kavanaugh about his praise for the then-Justice William Rehnquist’s dissent in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion-rights case.

“I’m going to talk to him about that,” she said on Monday. Earlier, she said that she was looking for a justice whose judicial philosophy “respects precedent.”

Kavanaugh is meeting with senators individually before his confirmation hearing by the Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 4.

Collins said she’s read hundreds of pages of documents related to Kavanaugh over the weeks since he was nominated by President Donald Trump.

“I have not seen anything that is disqualifying, but I have seen a number of issues that raise questions that I need to explore with him and that’s what I’ll do tomorrow,” Collins said.

Collins of Maine, along with Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, is one of two undecided Republicans who support the Roe v. Wade ruling that women have a right to get an abortion. Collins has said she wouldn’t support a nominee who was openly hostile to Roe, and Murkowski has said Roe is a factor in her evaluation process, but not the only factor.

Trump said in the past he would be picking justices who would overturn Roe, and Kavanaugh could be the deciding vote in future abortion cases.

Murkowski separately said she will be meeting with Kavanaugh later this week.

Without Collins or Murkowski, Kavanaugh would need the vote of a Democrat to win confirmation in the Senate, where Republicans have a 51-49 majority.

None of the Democratic senators have yet said they would vote for him, although a number have stayed in the undecided camp, including several Democrats who face re-election in states Trump won, such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.

Among Kavanaugh’s other meetings Tuesday is a visit with Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net Joe Sobczyk, John Harney
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