It’s almost a foregone conclusion that Judge Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed as Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court Justice. Democrats will howl over bogus complains, and Republicans will tune them out and fall in line.

A majority of the Right seems satisfied that on the whole, Kavanaugh is a decent originalist. Ann Coulter is thrilled with him, while Daniel Horowitz identifies several causes for concern. My own review of his abortion-related rulings and statements leaves me cautiously optimistic that he’s more likely than John Roberts to overturn Roe v. Wade.

While I’m majorly disappointed that Trump passed on nominating Amy Barrett (for whatever nonsensical reason), I’m open to Kavanaugh turning out either way. The real problem is that Senate Republicans won’t do their due diligence and thoroughly vet any of their own party’s judicial nominees before giving them lifetime power — never mind the fact that every modern GOP president has gotten it catastrophically wrong at least once.

Out of all the major conservative voices, Mark Levin is just about the only one I’ve seen state what should be obvious:

[T]he conservative senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee must use the confirmation hearing to ask him legitimate questions to verify his backers’ claims that he’s a textualist and originalist. There are certain gaps in and concerns about his record despite all the cheerleading.

I was one of a few lonely voices screaming that we were moving too fast on Neil Gorsuch’s nomination. And sure enough, while Gorsuch has turned out mostly fine so far, he’s also cast at least one horrendously wrong vote with disastrous ramifications. No judge is infallible and it’s impossible to predict every future possibility, but are we really going to say there isn’t any connection between rushing through the homework and being unpleasantly surprised just a year in?

Of course, none of this would be as big a problem if Congress exercised its constitutional power and duty to rein in rogue justices when they trash the Constitution. Unfortunately, since our current, swampy crop of Republicans has neither the interest for serious vetting or the willpower to truly check the legislative branch, “pass the justice to find out what’s in him” continues to be the order of the day.