US President Donald Trump has announced Brett Kavanaugh as his nominee for the US Supreme Court, picking a conservative federal appeals court judge who survived a previous tough Senate confirmation battle.
In picking the 53-year-old, Mr Trump aimed to entrench conservative control of the court for years to come with his second lifetime appointment to the nation's highest judicial body.
Mr Kavanaugh now faces what appears to be another fierce fight for confirmation in the Senate, where Mr Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a slim majority.
If confirmed, Mr Kavanaugh would replace long-serving conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement on 27 June aged 81.
The nominee has amassed a solidly conservative judicial record since 2006 on the influential US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the same court where three current justices including Chief Justice John Roberts previously served.
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Some conservative activists have questioned whether he would rule sufficiently aggressively as a justice.
Mr Kavanaugh potentially could serve on the high court for decades.
Mr Trump’s other leading candidates for the post were fellow federal appellate judges Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge and Amy Coney Barrett.
Brett Kavanaugh served as a senior White House official under Republican former President George W Bush before Mr Bush nominated him to the appeals court in 2003.
But some Democrats accused him of excessive partisanship and it took three years before the Senate eventually voted to confirm him.
Mr Kavanaugh worked for Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel whose investigation of Bill Clinton helped spur an effort by congressional Republicans in 1998 and 1999 to impeach the Democratic president and remove him from office.
Brett Kavanaugh in 2009 changed his tune on the Starr probe, arguing that presidents should be free from civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions and investigations while in office.
Donald Trump defeated Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 presidential election and has disparaged both Clintons.
Democrats in the past also have pointed to Mr Kavanaugh’s work for Bush during the recount fight in the pivotal state of Florida in the 2000 presidential election, a controversy that was resolved only after the conservative-majority Supreme Court sided with Mr Bush over Democratic candidate Al Gore, settling the election outcome.
The appointment will not change the ideological breakdown of a court that already has a 5-4 conservative majority, nevertheless it could move the court to the right.
Mr Kennedy sometimes joined the liberal justices on key rulings on divisive social issues like abortion and gay rights, a practice his replacement may not duplicate.
