Kavanaugh should not be on Supreme Court, Baker says

By Joshua Miller

CAMBRIDGE — Governor Charlie Baker said Friday he doesn’t think Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh should be elevated to the high court.

“I’ve had concerns about Kavanaugh’s views, especially on Roe v. Wade, for quite a while,” Baker told reporters after an unrelated event at Harvard University. “I don’t think anything happened during the confirmation process to change my mind. So for that reason — primarily that reason, but others — I don’t believe he should be on the Supreme Court.”

Baker said he has “some concerns about some of his issues with respect to gun policy as well,” but emphasized that Kavanaugh’s view on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 abortion rights decision, is the issue he has been “primarily concerned about since the beginning.”

“Why wasn’t Governor Baker speaking out against Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment when it mattered?” she said. “Too often, Charlie Baker is the last one to stand up on issues that matter to working families across our state. Massachusetts voters deserve real leadership from their governor.”

Baker had called for an investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh and said last week he believed professor Christine Blasey Ford, one of the accusers.

Beginning late last week, the FBI reportedly interviewed several people about sexual misconduct accusations, but Democrats have attacked that probe as appearing “severely limited.”

While Baker was attending the inauguration of Harvard’s new president, Larry Bacow, two key senators said they would vote “yes” on Kavanaugh’s confirmation. That probably means the federal judge will be elevated to the high court this weekend following a final vote in the US Senate.

BOSTON GLOBE