Graham Warns Dems Against Personal Attacks on Kavanaugh

The records also showed that Kavanaugh, a federal appellate judge nominated by President Donald Trump to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, had between $45,000 and $150,000 in credit card debt in 2016, which was paid off by the following year.

Both sides will be poring over Kavanaugh's some 300 legal opinions in his 12 years as a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit, not to mention his legal articles and speaking engagements.

White House spokesman Raj Shah told The Washington Post that Kavanaugh built up the debt by buying season tickets to Washington Nationals games and playoff games for himself and his friends. According to Shah, The Post reported, Kavanaugh ran up a large portion of the heavy debts purchasing Washington Nationals Major League Baseball tickets. Shah told The Post that Kavanaugh's friends reimbursed him for their share of the baseball tickets and that the judge has since stopped purchasing the season tickets.

"Don't defame him for living a life most of us would be proud of", Graham said.

Federal law requires only broad ranges for disclosure forms, and such filings include assets for spouses, so it is hard to pinpoint an exact financial snapshot for an individual.

Bartholet, a former lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and founder of the Legal Action Center in NY, stressed that she was basing her comments on Kavanaugh's judicial record - not his time at Harvard. Public real estate filings indicate that the couple has refinanced their mortgage twice, most recently in 2015.

His past financial disclosure forms reveal that Kavanaugh has carried significant credit card debt - on and off - for more than a decade.

That's all the support Kavanaugh needs to be confirmed. It is unlikely that Kavanaugh would land at the outermost pole of the court, where Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, Trump's first appointee, have aligned.

Kavanaugh's nomination sets the stage for a brutal confirmation battle, a blueprint for which Republicans established in 2016 when they denied a hearing to Merrick Garland, Barack Obama's choice to fill the seat left vacant following the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia. Federal circuit judges make about $220,000 annually, and Kavanaugh also earned $27,000 from teaching at Harvard Law School a year ago. Heitkamp also presented the clearest outline of any Democrat on this list for what she wants to see in a Supreme Court justice: "a true nonideological jurist" in the mold of Kennedy, she has said. As the town manager of Chevy Chase, Maryland, Kavanaugh's wife makes $66,000 annually.

Manchin is one of five Senate Democrats trying to get reelected in November in a state Trump won by double digits.

The Kavanaughs send their two daughters to the Catholic private school of Blessed Sacrament, where tuition costs $10,025 per child.

On the current Supreme Court scale, Kavanaugh might compare to Justice Samuel Alito, a 2006 appointee and unflinching conservative. Shortly after her 2009 nomination to the Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor announced plans for a memoir, which was published in 2013.

Academic trips and fellowships can also bring in additional income.

Did not Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once question Roe V. Wade?