What to Know
- The current appeals court judge spent the early part of 2000 working pro bono to represent the Miami family members of Elian Gonzalez.
- Kavanaugh returned to the Sunshine State months later for several cases involving the Bush family.
While Judge Brett Kavanaugh may be a native of the Washington D.C. area, the man who was selected to President Trump on Monday to be the next nominee for a spot on the U.S. Supreme Court has several ties to South Florida from his work on two high profile events in the area.
The current appeals court judge spent the early part of 2000 working pro bono to represent the Miami family members of Elian Gonzalez, the young child who was found floating on an inner tube after his mother’s death while trying to bring the then five-year-old to the United States from Cuba.
Gonzalez was eventually removed from the Little Havana home on April 22nd of that year by federal agents and sent back to live with his father, who had stayed in Cuba.
Kavanaugh returned to the Sunshine State months later for several cases involving the Bush family, first representing former Governor Jeb Bush in his effort to allow parents to use public money to pay for private religious school vouchers – a plan that was later struck down by the state Supreme Court.
He later joined the legal team of then-candidate George W. Bush in an effort to stop the state mandated recount of ballots during the lengthy presidential election battle with Al Gore.
The case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the Bush campaign enjoyed a 5-4 victory that ended the recount and paved the way for him to become the 43rd President of the United States.
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Bush would go on to nominate Kavanaugh to the Court of Appeals for the Washington D.C. district in 2003 with him officially taking the post three years later.
