President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade may not be considered "settled law of the land" in a 2003 email that was leaked to The New York Times and published on Thursday.
In the exchange, written while he was working as an attorney in the George W. Bush White House, Kavanaugh proposed deleting a line from a draft opinion article that said: "it is widely accepted by legal scholars across the board that Roe v. Wade and its progeny are the settled law of the land."
Kavanaugh said in the email, which was provided to lawmakers but not approved for public release, that he was not sure that Roe was considered settled "since Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so."
The abortion ruling has been a flash point in Kavanaugh's confirmation process, which entered its third day of hearings Thursday morning.
While Kavanaugh's confirmation by the Senate is widely considered likely, the GOP holds only a narrow majority in the Senate. Two moderate Republican senators, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have said Kavanaugh's position on the issue could be a significant factor in their votes.
Collins told reporters last month that Kavanaugh indicated to her in private that Roe was settled, though Democrats and reproductive rights activists said the remark was a dodge.
On Wednesday, Kavanaugh sought to tamp down fears that he would overturn or roll back the ruling. Kavanaugh said that Roe was "an important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times." He referred to Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 abortion case which reaffirmed Roe's central holding, as "precedent on precedent."
Reproductive rights activists have opposed Kavanaugh's nomination since it was announced, citing Trump's claim that he would nominate judges to the court who would "automatically" overturn Roe. Also in the limelight is a remark Kavanaugh made last year praising former Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, a dissenter in Roe, as Kavanaugh's "judicial hero."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said on Wednesday that Kavanaugh's comments about Roe were not enough.
"We can't accept vague promises from Brett Kavanaugh when women's reproductive freedom is at stake," the lawmaker's office wrote in a post on Twitter.
The leak of the email comes as Democratic senators have demanded the release of hundreds of thousands of pages of documents from Kavanaugh's former work. Sen. Cory Booker threatened Thursday morning to release so-called "committee confidential" documents, noting that he would be "knowingly violating the rules."
Booker's threat was joined by Sen. Mazie Hirono, R-HI, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL.
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