It’s part of his job under the US Constitution. One of the nine judges’ roles became vacant after 81-year-old Judge Kennedy retired in July. What’s at stake? There are four liberal-leaning judges and four conservatives on the Supreme Court. Kennedy functioned as a swing voter. Now that he’s gone, Kavanaugh would tip things in a conservative direction. A Supreme Court reshaped by Trump will have lasting consequences for the United States. There are concerns a right-leaning court would reinterpret existing laws such as the landmark Roe v Wade case, which allows women to have abortions legally. Other sensitive issues include immigration. And, as the Mueller probe into links between Trump and Russia continues, there are circumstances in which that matter could come before the Supreme Court, too.

The character of Kavanaugh also reflects the cultural change of the Republican Party in the time of Trump. Isn’t there supposed to be a separation of powers? Why is this so political? Judges have always had political leanings but choosing Supreme Court justices was once a less partisan process. The backdrop to this current hyper-partisan situation isn’t just Democrats' sour grapes. When Obama was president and Republicans controlled the Senate, they refused to hold hearings to consider his Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland. There was no precedent for this move, which was viewed as a naked power grab. You could argue that if Trump had picked a Democrat-friendly candidate to fill Judge Kennedy’s place, he could have cut across partisan lines and soothed the situation. Who are the women accusing Kavanaugh?

After Kavanaugh was nominated, his primary accuser, Dr Christine Blasey Ford, approached the office of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein confidentially to say that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in the '80s at a house party when they were in high school. Deborah Ramirez claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when he was a college freshman. Julie Swetnick is the third woman to come forward with allegations of historical sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh since he was nominated. She says he was present at a party where she was gang-raped in the '80s. Kavanaugh denies the allegations and says his family has been “destroyed”. Why is all this coming out now?

Candidates for the Supreme Court always face a series of hearings before the US Senate Judiciary Committee at which they have to answer questions about their character. The committee looks into the professional and personal history of the potential judges to make sure they have a background appropriate for the role. The position is for life. The Court has the capacity to make rulings that alter the way law is understood for decades into the future. Kavanaugh had appeared before the committee once and none of these allegations had surfaced. But after Ford's allegations were made public, and a furore ensued, a second hearing was called to address them. This is why Kavanaugh and, today, Ford, have been under the spotlight. Kavanaugh is 53. Why were they scrutinising his school yearbook from when he was 16? There seem to be two accounts of Kavanaugh as a young man. One is studious and sporty. The other involves lots of beer-drinking and high-school high-jinks.

“I still like beer,” an angry Kavanaugh told the committee, “but I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone.” Why didn’t Trump just ditch Kavanaugh to avoid all this trouble? Trump seemed to flirt with this option but didn’t act on it. Ditching Kavanaugh would mean restarting the nominations process and this would run past the mid-term elections. If the Democrats succeed in gaining control of Congress after the mid-terms, they would be unlikely to sign off on highly conservative picks for the Supreme Court. What are the implications for Trump?

If Kavanaugh is rejected, it will be a political setback that he will blame on the Democrats. If he Kavanaugh wins, the Democrats will have even less reason to co-operate on any future decisions but Trump will be able to say that he delivered to his conservative constituents. What’s the next step in this process? Having once dawdled on Obama's pick of Merrick Garland, the Republicans are now creating a real urgency around pushing through Kavanaugh’s nomination. The US mid-term elections are coming up in November in which control of Congress will basically be voted on by Americans. Today the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on whether to send the nomination to the full Senate (of 100 senators) who would, in turn, vote to confirm Kavanaugh's nomination. The President would then formally appoint him as a Supreme Court judge.