When Supreme Court Votes Become Campaign Issues: What Kavanaugh's Confirmation Really Meant

When Senator Susan Collins voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018, she said she believed he would be an impartial jurist who would respect precedent. Two years later, that same court overturned Roe v. Wade, a decision Kavanaugh supported, erasing a constitutional right that had stood for nearly 50 years.

Now, Planned Parenthood is spending more than $600,000 in Maine advertising against Collins, calling out that vote. It's the organization's biggest state investment this cycle.

This isn't about politics. It's about what judicial appointments actually do in people's lives.

Why this matters

Collins was one of three Republican senators who said they believed Kavanaugh would be a restraint on judicial overreach. That confidence turned out to be misplaced. When Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization came down in 2022, Kavanaugh joined the majority in eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion, a decision that immediately triggered bans and severe restrictions in half the country.

For millions of women, especially those without resources to travel for care, that vote meant their reproductive freedoms were gone. Overnight. Not because voters chose it. Because a senator's prediction about a judicial nominee was wrong.

The Planned Parenthood ad buy is an attempt to make that consequence visible in a Senate race. Whether voters agree or disagree with abortion policy, the underlying issue is simple: Senators who confirm Supreme Court justices bear responsibility for what those justices actually do.

The separation of church and state angle

There's another layer here that connects to deeper questions about government's role. Dobbs didn't just overturn Roe. The decision essentially allowed states to enforce religious doctrine through law, prohibiting abortion based on particular theological beliefs about when life begins, not on secular evidence or broad consensus.

That touches on a core principle: elected officials shouldn't use their office to impose their faith on people who don't share it. When judges vote to ban abortion without exception, even in cases of rape or incest or severe fetal abnormality, they're often enforcing particular religious views, not neutral legal principle. And when senators confirm those judges, they're enabling that.

What happens next

Collins faces a difficult position. Maine voters elected her in part because she presents herself as independent, willing to cross party lines. That independence is being tested now. Voters will decide whether her vote for Kavanaugh reflects good judgment or a lapse in it.

That's how democracy is supposed to work: voters holding elected officials accountable for the predictable consequences of their choices. Planned Parenthood is making those consequences hard to ignore.