WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (all times local):
8 a.m.
Democrats don't seem to have the votes to keep Brett Kavanaugh from joining the Supreme Court, but that's not stopping them from taking to the Senate floor in a parade of speeches into the early morning against the conservative jurist.
Hours before the expected roll call vote that would elevate the appeals court judge to the nation's highest court, Democrats are making clear their strong opposition.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (KEER'-sten JIHL'-uh-brand) of New York says there's one fundamental question for senators when they decide Kavanaugh's fate: "Do we, as a country, value women?"
Gillibrand says women who've experienced sexual trauma are "tired of the same old scenario where the men are believed and the women are not."
Allegations against Kavanaugh arose late in the confirmation process that he sexually abused women decades ago. He's emphatically denied the accusations.
Gillibrand says that after the way Anita Hill was treated by the Senate during the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991, "we said it would never happen again. But it did."
___
12:30 a.m.
Brett Kavanaugh seems assured of surviving a Supreme Court nomination fight for the ages after two wavering senators said they'd back him.
The announcements Friday by Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia came after weeks of shocking accusations, hardball politics and Capitol protests.
Their support makes Saturday's vote to confirm Kavanaugh an apparent formality after a battle that riveted the nation for nearly a month.
Republicans control the Senate by a 51-49 margin, and Saturday's roll call vote seems destined to be nearly party-line, with just a single defector from each side.
The vote caps a contest fought against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement and President Donald Trump's unyielding support of his Supreme Court nominee.
