Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is in the midst of another tough reelection fight. Polls show her trailing Democratic nominee Graham Platner despite his recent scandals. Voter antipathy toward incumbents disadvantages a 73-year-old seeking a sixth term. On top of all that, Collins is also facing the voters for the first time since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Collins played a critical role in that ruling by having voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the high court.
Collins has had four years to prepare an answer for the majority of Mainers who support abortion rights. Instead, she just reminded voters that she has no regrets.
It may seem surprising that Collins wouldn’t vote differently now on a nominee that she admits “misled” her.
In late 2018, Kavanaugh squeaked through the Senate by a confirmation vote of 50-48, after telling Collins that he viewed Roe as “settled precedent.” In a speech on the Senate floor, Collins even accused people of being alarmist about the fate of abortion rights: “Suffice it to say, prominent advocacy groups have been wrong” before, she said in 2018. Within four years, Kavanaugh joined the majority opinion that ended the federal right to abortion.
On Friday, a reporter from the Portland Press Herald asked Collins “whether you regret that vote.” Collins was at first defiant: “I do not regret that vote.” Then, as often happens with Collins, came the caveats: “I do disagree with Justice Kavanaugh’s vote. I would point out that in that decision several Supreme Court justices whom I supported voted the other way. That includes Justice Sotomayor, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Jackson.”
In fact, Ketanji Brown Jackson didn’t hear the case; she joined the court right after that term ended. And though Collins did vote to confirm Justices Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, her answer elides the fact that, along with Kavanaugh, she also supported the confirmations of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito and John Roberts — four of the six justices in the majority on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Even Collins’ vote against Amy Coney Barrett in October 2020, just days before Collins faced the voters, came after it was clear that Barrett had enough support to be confirmed. (Justice Clarence Thomas joined the court in 1991, several years before Collins was first elected to the Senate.)
It may seem surprising that Collins wouldn’t vote differently now on a nominee that she admits “misled” her. But that’s because, as a closer look at Collins’ record on judicial nominees shows, she would do it all over again if she had the chance. In Donald Trump’s second term alone, Collins has confirmed at least 17 anti-abortion judges to lifetime seats, any one of whom could tee up the next case that takes the entire country backwards on abortion, birth control and more.
Susan Rinkunas
Susan Rinkunas is an independent journalist and co-founder of Autonomy News. Her work has appeared in Jezebel, The New Republic, The Guardian, Slate, The Nation and more.