The Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh well displayed the divide between Democrats and Republicans. In the end, the newest justice was confirmed by a razor thin margin of 50-48, mostly along party lines. Republican Lisa Murkowski voted present and Democrat Joe Manchin voted in Kavanaugh’s favor.
Once he took office, it was expected that the judge would vote exclusively with the conservative leaning justices. Fox News Legal Analyst, Andrew Napolitano was left shocked on Monday when Kavanaugh sided with the liberal judges on a case involving Apple.
Napolitano explained, “I did not see this coming. All the indications about Brett Kavanaugh were that he was a monolithic conservative that wouldn’t even listen to the other side.”
The legal analyst continued, “Today, he and the four liberal members of the court radically expanded the rights of plaintiffs to bring class actions.”
The ruling now enables app users who felt they had overpaid for their product to sue large companies via class action lawsuits. Before the ruling, customers had to sue the app maker directly rather than being able to sue organizations like Apple.
This isn’t the first time that Kavanaugh has made a surprising decision as a justice. In December of last year, the judge voted against a petition that would have allowed the states of Kansas and Louisiana to ban abortion providers.
Legal professor, Tim Jost, noted at the time, “If Kavanaugh was going to deal a major blow to health care rights during his first session on the court, this would have been the case to do it.”