What's the point of Senate confirmation hearings? The testimony of nominees to judgeships and the cabinet is too often evasive or deceptive. A majority of current senators seem perfectly willing to rely on shifty answers to their questions as an excuse to ignore their constitutional duty.

The Constitution does assign senators the responsibility to provide "advice and consent" for the appointment of Supreme Court justices, ambassadors and other senior officials such as cabinet secretaries.

In 1987, Republican President Ronald Reagan nominated Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. He made the mistake of answering senators' questions forthrightly. In its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court had found a constitutional right to abortion which relied on its interpretation of the Ninth Amendment. Bork testified: "I do not think you can use the Ninth Amendment" in establishing such a right. In large part because of this stance, his nomination was rejected by a 16-vote majority.

Subsequent Republican nominees to the Supreme Court learned their lesson. In his 2005 confirmation hearing, current Chief Justice John Roberts said, "Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land." In 2017, Justice Neil Gorsuch echoed Roberts in his confirmation hearing, saying that "Roe v. Wade is the law of the land," and in 2018, Justice Brett Kavanaugh testified, "It is settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court."

All three of those justices voted to overturn Roe in 2021. Sen. Susan Collins called the votes of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh "inconsistent" with statements they made during their confirmation hearings. She said she felt "misled."

I am not sure why. From 1976 to 2020, every Republican presidential platform contained words calling for appointing justices or a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe. Roberts, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh had all worked for Republican administrations. In his first term, President Donald Trump pledged to only nominate Supreme Court candidates who'd been endorsed by the right-wing Federalist Society, which has a well-known aversion to Roe v. Wade.

What's the point of going through this charade? Nominees skirt the truth in their bid to win confirmation, while senators of the president's party support them despite their record.

The game is not restricted to Supreme Court nominations. Trump nominated Emil Bove, his former defense attorney and a high official in his Department of Justice, to an appellate judgeship. A former DOJ official reported that Bove had told him and others the administration may have to tell judges "f*** you" and ignore court orders blocking deportations of noncitizens. Bove claimed, "I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order." Texts and emails released by Senate Democrats contradict Bove's sworn denial. Nevertheless, he was confirmed by a 50-49 vote despite the apparent commission of perjury in his testimony.

Nominees to the cabinet, of course, also require Senate approval. Trump's nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., testified, "I am not anti-vaccine." However, in a 2023 podcast he had declared, "No vaccine is safe and effective." Kennedy Jr. was confirmed by a 52-48 vote in which every Republican senator supported the nomination except Sen. Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor who cited the life-saving impact of vaccines.

During a measles outbreak centered in Texas and New Mexico, Kennedy Jr. promoted cod liver oil, vitamin A, steroids, antibiotics and natural immunity as alternatives to the measles vaccine. In 2016, there were 86 cases of measles in the U.S. There have been 1,408 this year through Aug. 26. From 2016 to 2024, there were no deaths in the U.S. from measles. Two children and one adult have died so far in 2025.

Lead researchers at Stanford University and their colleagues wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association this past April that with a "50% decline in childhood vaccination in the US, the simulation model predicted 51.2 million measles cases over a 25-year period, 9.9 million rubella cases, 4.3 million poliomyelitis cases, 197 diphtheria cases, 10.3 million hospitalizations, and 159,200 deaths."

Why go through all this public posturing? Rights are being taken away. Children are dying. I learned in my youth that the best predictor of a horse's future performance on the racetrack is its past performance. Senators should be looking at the past performance of a presidential nominee, not mumbo-jumbo voiced in a hearing.

Would the lack of public hearings violate the Constitution? No. For half of this country's history, there were no public hearings. John Marshall, nominated as chief justice by President John Adams in 1801, faced no hearing. Nor did Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the treasury, nor did Franklin D. Roosevelt as assistant secretary of the navy. The first public confirmation hearing was held in 1916 for Louis Brandeis, nominated by President Woodrow Wilson for a Supreme Court seat. Brandeis himself did not even testify. Based on his legal record, the Senate confirmed him by a 47-22 margin. Brandeis went on to become one of the greatest of all justices.

What, then, is the purpose of public hearings? To hear misleading testimony and give senators an excuse to vote for unsuitable candidates? There are fundamental rights and human lives at stake in confirming a president's nominees.

Why confirm someone based on an ability to evade the truth? Why shouldn't senators cast their votes based on what the nominee's record says regarding their expertise, wisdom and experience?

As the old saying goes, a leopard doesn't change its spots. Nor, usually, does a candidate nominated for high office by the president.

A renaissance man, Keith Raffel has served as the senior counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, started a successful internet software company and written five novels, which you can check out at keithraffel.com. He currently spends the academic year as a resident scholar at Harvard. To find out more about Keith and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at creators.com.

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