Trump Supreme Court comes back to haunt vulnerable Susan Collins

Republican Senator Susan Collins' vote to confirm one of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominees is once again coming back to haunt her in Maine, eight years after Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Court and a few weeks before Collins faces voters in another tough reelection campaign.

The vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation in 2018 was one of the key votes of Collins' time in the Senate and has been frequently used against her during her 2020 reelection campaign, something she has not yet reconciled with.

“The Kavanaugh thing was disgusting,” Michael Luck, a 66-year-old Maine voter who previously supported Collins but backed her Democratic opponent in 2020, told The Washington Post. He accused the veteran Maine senator of being “really far out of touch.”

The matter has come back up since Justice Samuel Alito, who is 76, has recently stated that he is considering retiring. Should Alito step down during Trump's presidency, the president would then have another chance to alter the composition of the Supreme Court – bringing senators like Collins once again to the heart of a confirmation battle.

When the Post asked her if she would apply the same procedure to another Trump nominee as she had done with Kavanaugh and the other Supreme Court nominees, Collins replied, "Yes."

She stated that she carries out a thorough background check, personally interviews the people who are being considered and speaks to those who know them before deciding how to vote. Moreover, Collins mentioned that she had supported the Democratic nominees Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

But her vote for Kavanaugh comes with special baggage in Maine.

When discussing Kavanaugh's statement, Collins said that he had described Roe v. Wade as settled law. In 2022, he was part of the Supreme Court majority that overruled Roe and thus ended the federal constitutional right to abortion. Collins has since criticized that decision but has still refused to withdraw his vote in support of her confirmation.

“I do not regret the vote,” Collins said earlier this year.

Her Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, who was previously Senate President of Maine, is now attempting to revisit that past with the voters.

“This election will determine who confirms the next Supreme Court justice,” Jackson wrote on X while attacking Collins’ record.

Alito has not declared any intention of retiring and has stated that he wants to stay on the court for the present. However, the possibility of another vacancy has provided Democrats with an opportunity to revive one of Collins’ politically damaging votes.

Trump has become dissatisfied with Kavanaugh and some of his other Supreme Court appointments during his first term. Recently, the president stated that he regretted each of his three appointments during his first term after the justices had ruled against him in various cases.

However, Collins is sticking to the vote that enabled Kavanaugh to be appointed to the court, thus bringing the decision she made eight years earlier right back into the heart of her most recent campaign.