Hon. Brett M. Kavanaugh

Judge Kavanaugh was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals on May 30, 2006. Judge Kavanaugh graduated from Yale College cum laude in 1987 and from Yale Law School in 1990, where he was a Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Walter Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and then for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 1992-93, Judge Kavanaugh worked as an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. During October Term 1993, Judge Kavanaugh served as a law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1994 to 1997 and for a period in 1998, Judge Kavanaugh was Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr. Judge Kavanaugh was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C., from 1997 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, Judge Kavanaugh served as Associate Counsel and then as Senior Associate Counsel to the President. From July 2003 until his appointment to the court in 2006, he was Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary to President Bush. 

Before joining the bench, Judge Kavanaugh argued cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. and Fifth Circuits, and other state and federal courts. Since joining the Court, Judge Kavanaugh has taught full-term courses in Separation of Powers at Harvard Law School (Winter Terms 2008, 2009, and 2010) and Constitutional Interpretation at Georgetown University Law Center (Fall Term 2007). He has been named the Samuel Williston Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School during Winter Terms 2009 and 2010. He has published in the Yale Law Journal, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Minnesota Law Review, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. By appointment of the Chief Justice, Judge Kavanaugh serves as a member of the Committee on the Judicial Branch of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Judge Kavanaugh is the ex officio representative from the Judiciary to the American Bar Association's Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, is a Master in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and is a member of the Lawyers Club of Washington, the John Carroll Society, and the Federalist Society. Judge Kavanaugh was born in Washington, D.C., in 1965, is a graduate of Georgetown Prep and Mater Dei School, and is a member of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Washington where he serves as a lector and usher. Judge Kavanaugh is a volunteer tutor at a public elementary school in the District of Columbia. He and his wife Ashley have two daughters.

Publications