Retired Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens says Brett Kavanaugh is not suitable to sit on bench

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Retired Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens has said Brett Kavanaugh should not be confirmed to the nation’s highest court because of his performance before senators and his potential for political bias.

The 98-year-old former jurist, who was appointed to the court by Gerald Ford and who served from 1975 to 2010, said he had praised Donald Trump’s nominee and one of his rulings in his 2014 book, Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution.

Yet speaking to a group of retirees in Boca Raton, Florida, Mr Stevens said his opinion about the 53-year-old Mr Kavanaugh had changed after watching his second appearance before senators.

That round of testimony followed allegations from at least three women of sexual assault or sexual misconduct, accusations he denied and which the FBI subsequently carried out an additional background check into.

Mr Stevens said Mr Kavanaugh had revealed political views that would make it impossible for him to do the court’s work.

“They suggest that he has demonstrated a potential bias involving enough potential litigants before the court that he would not be able to perform his full responsibilities,” said Mr Stevens.

“And I think there is merit in that criticism and that the senators should really pay attention to it.”

It is very rare for a former justice of the court to comment on such matters, which add weight to the remarks of Mr Stevens, which were first reported by the Palm Beach Post.

They came as senators on Capitol Hill prepared to move forward with a ballot to vote on Mr Kavanaugh’s confirmation, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

“I’ve changed my views for reasons that have really no relationship to his intellectual ability or his record as a federal judge,” Mr Stevens said. “He’s a fine federal judge, and he should have been confirmed when he was nominated [as a federal judge].”

He added: “But I think that his performance during the hearings caused me to change my mind.