Brett Kavanaugh's Long Island friend to testify at confirmation hearings

A teacher at a Locust Valley school is among those scheduled to testify for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a longtime friend whose confirmation hearings begin Tuesday.

Louisa Garry, who teaches and coaches track and field at Friends Academy, a private college preparatory school in Locust Valley, said in a pro-Kavanaugh commercial for the conservative Judicial Crisis Network that she has known Kavanaugh for 35 years.

“I believe that we need to have bright, curious, open-minded, thoughtful, empathetic people who are judges,” Garry said in the ad. “And I trust that Brett is that person. He’s dedicated to his work, he’s dedicated to his family, he’s of the highest integrity as a person and I believe that he would be a great Supreme Court justice.”

She could not be reached for comment.

President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, a key swing vote in a number of high-profile decisions. If Kavanaugh wins confirmation, his conservative voting record indicates he would tilt the court to the right, legal experts say.

Garry said in the commercial that she is “not involved in politics.” She is registered as a Democrat at her home in Montauk. She also has a residence in Locust Valley.

Judicial Crisis Network chief counsel Carrie Severino told Politico that the group expects to spend at least $10 million advocating for Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Garry and Kavanaugh attended Yale University together in the 1980s.

In an apparent reference to Kavanaugh, Garry is quoted in 2015 on the charity fundraising website CrowdRise that “My friend Brett and I ran the Boston marathon together in 1990 and again in 2010. Brett was the first person I met when I stepped on campus at Yale in 1983. In celebration of our 50th birthdays this spring, we are training to run the Boston Marathon again in 2015.”

Garry was a record-setting runner at Yale who trained for Olympic trials, according to Yale Alumni Magazine.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree at Yale, she earned a master’s degree from Long Island University, according to a Friends Academy directory.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) are among those scheduled to introduce Kavanaugh at his Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.

Witnesses scheduled to testify in the hearings for Kavanaugh include former solicitors general Theodore Olson and Paul Clement. Witnesses to be called by the Democrats include John Dean, who was White House counsel for President Richard M. Nixon and, according to a news release from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, “will speak about the abuse of executive power.”