Despite the smear campaign that has already begun against Trump’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed, and on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s timetable. Kavanaugh will be on the court when it sits again in October, writes Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute.

Kavanaugh has had a long involvement with the Federalist Society — which signals a commitment to ideas rather than mere careerism or partisan loyalty — and has been endorsed by plenty of conservatives who don’t shy away from calling out judicial “squishes.” That’s in part because Kavanaugh is also a shrewd inside-the-Beltway operator, having worked under Ken Starr on the Clinton investigation and in senior roles under George W. Bush.

And that’s where the left’s attacks against him will come. Once the first wave of generic and groundless “Trump’s nominee will take away my rights” demagoguery subsides, Kavanaugh will be smeared by association with the last Republican president. But that’s not something that will keep Susan Collins — the keeper of the GOP’s 50th Senate vote — from supporting him. Which is why he’ll be confirmed on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s timetable and be on the court when it sits again in October.

In short, the Kavanaugh selection seems likely to secure the bulwarks restraining the expansion of government against the onslaught of the swamp. In this regard,

Trump has made a selection that should be praised — bigly.

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