UPDATE 2-Democrats protest as U.S. Supreme Court nominee's hearing begins

U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday complained about Republicans blocking access to documents stemming from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's previous work in the White House under President George W. Bush as the conservative judge's Senate confirmation hearing began.

News photographers clicked pictures of Kavanaugh as he entered the hearing room. After Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley opened the hearing, Democrats protested the withholding of the documents and asked to have the hearing adjourned.

Democrats have demanded in vain to see documents relating to the three years Kavanaugh, nominated by President Donald Trump for a lifetime job on the top U.S. court, spent as staff secretary to Bush, a job that involved managing paper flow from advisers to the president. Kavanaugh held that job from 2003 to 2006.

Republicans have released some but not all of the existing documents concerning Kavanaugh's two years as a lawyer in the White House Counsel's Office prior to becoming staff secretary.

If confirmed by a Senate controlled narrowly by Trump's fellow Republicans, Kavanaugh is expected to move the court - which already had a conservative majority - further to the right. Senate Democratic leaders have vowed a fierce fight to try to block his confirmation.

"This entire process has cast a cloud over Judge Kavanaugh's nomination. Democrats strongly object to moving forward when so much of his record remains secret," said Senator Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee that is conducting the confirmation hearing, due to run through Friday.

"We are shocked at the efforts being undertaken to jam this nomination through and hide his record from the American public. We got to these hearings under protest," Feinstein added, standing in front of the Supreme Court building with her fellow Democratic committee members before the hearing.

Republicans have said that Democrats have more than enough documents to assess Kavanaugh's record, including his 12 years of judicial opinions as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They have accused Democrats of seeking to delay the hearing for purely political reasons.

Republicans hold a slim Senate majority so they can approve Kavanaugh if they stay united. So far, there were no signs of defections, with the Senate likely to vote by the end of the month. The court begins its next term in October.

The hearing gives Democrats a chance to make their case against Kavanaugh ahead of November's congressional elections.

'AN UMPIRE'

"A good judge must be an umpire - a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy," Kavanaugh said in written remarks released in advance of the hearing. "I don't decide cases based on personal or policy preferences."

Trump nominated Kavanaugh, 53, to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement on June 27. He is Trump's second nominee to the Supreme Court. Trump last year appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch, part of his push to make the federal judiciary more conservative.

Liberals are concerned Kavanaugh could provide a decisive fifth vote on the nine-justice court to overturn or weaken Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide.

Kennedy was a solid conservative but sided with the court's liberals on some issues, including abortion and gay rights.

Beyond social issues, Kavanaugh is also likely to face questions about his views on investigating sitting presidents and the ongoing probe led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Kavanaugh spent four years working for Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who investigated former Democratic President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Kavanaugh also spent more than five years working for Bush.

In 2009, many years after the Starr inquiry, Kavanaugh wrote a law review article saying presidents should be free from the distractions of civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, and investigations while in office.

As a judge, he has amassed a solidly conservative record since 2006 on the influential Washington-based appeals court.

With Senator John McCain's death, the Republican Senate majority shrank to 50-49, but McCain's replacement is likely to be seated before a final vote on Kavanaugh, restoring the majority to 51-49 and providing the votes needed for confirmation.

Liberal activists have pinned their slim hopes to block Kavanaugh on two Republican senators who support abortion rights: Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. So far, neither has indicated likelihood to oppose Kavanaugh.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)