Kavanaugh sworn in as Supreme Court justice

Kavanaugh was sworn in shortly after the Senate voted 50-48 in his favor – a move that cemented the high court’s shift to the right under the Republican leader, who has chosen two of the nine sitting justices.

With tensions simmering, Pence got an earful from activists who booed and chanted “Vote them out!” as he walked to his motorcade.

They had laid out banners several feet long on the east steps of the Capitol, which faces the Supreme Court building. Capitol police dragged some screaming protesters out of the chamber. He will make the Senate and the country proud.

The Iowa Republican told reporters that his message to protesters would be, “thank god that you’re willing to exercise your First Amendment rights of association and free speech”.

USA president Donald Trump has celebrated the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the highest court in America. In Topeka, Trump said he may have the opportunity to name more justices to the high court, and needs a Republican Senate to confirm them.

In an interview with Breitbart News Saturday, Maine Republican Chairwoman Demi Kouzounas told host Matthew Boyle that Collins and her staff had been physically threatened, sent vulgar messages, and had freakish things sent to them in the mail.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California, said the Kavanaugh confirmation “shifts the court far to the right, putting women’s reproductive rights, civil rights, environmental protections, workers’ rights, the ability to implement gun safety rules and the ability to hold presidents accountable at risk for a generation”.

Collins had been a holdout Republican but did agree to vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation and announced her decision on Friday.

Still, it was a close-run thing: Kavanaugh’s nomination was almost derailed by Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations that the judge assaulted her when they were teenagers in the 1980s, which sparked uproar and forced Republicans to delay the confirmation vote for a week to allow time for a supplemental Federal Bureau of Investigation background check.

Protests began in earnest when Dr Christine Blasey Ford came forward, alleging he had assaulted her at a party in the 1980s.

Critics have objected to Kavanaugh over his sexual assault allegations, as well as his record and statements that have been widely regarded as partisan.

But the Kavanaugh spectacle, fueled by extraordinary accusations and counter-claims in nationally televised hearings, and tense battles over an 11th-hour FBI investigation to address the assault allegations, has inflamed political passions.

“I’m much more focused on the here and now, which is that we have an election coming up”, said Ms. Hirono on CNN’s “State of the Union”. ‘I don’t know. I don’t know.

“In nominating Judge Kavanaugh, President Trump kept his word to the American people to appoint judges who will interpret the Constitution as written and uphold the God-given liberties enshrined there”.

But Murkowski ultimately withdrew herself from the final tally as a gesture of goodwill toward her Republican colleague, Sen.

That should have meant a 51-49 tally, but the absence of Republican Steve Daines, a yes voter who was at his daughter’s wedding, altered the final figures.

“I put myself in his shoes”, Collins said.

Labour MP Jess Phillips wrote about the effect the vote has had on women, tweeting: “I feel as though someone is sitting on my chest”.