CNN News: 美最高法院大法官提名听证会火药味十足

There are currently 8 sitting justices at the U.S. Supreme Court. One retired this summer and Senate hearings are entering their second day Wednesday for President Donald Trump's choice to fill the vacancy. The nominee is Brett Kavanaugh. He's currently a U.S. Court of Appeals Judge. His first day of hearings was yesterday and it got off to a tense start. Some protestors were escorted out of the room for shouting as the hearing began. There were also attempts by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to interrupt and postpone the hearing.

目前美国最高法院有8名在任大法官。1名大法官今年夏天退休，唐纳德·特朗普总统选择了1名法官来填补这个空缺，周三，参议院的提名确认听证会进入第二天。总统的提名人选是布雷特·卡瓦诺。他目前是美国上诉法院法官。昨天举行的第一场听证会一开始就很紧张。听证会刚开始，一些抗议者就因为大声喊叫被带出听证会大厅。参议院司法委员会的民主党议员还试图中断并推迟听证会。

Some said they wanted more time to review 42,000 documents related to Judge Kavanaugh that were released the night before the hearing. Republicans said that more than 500,000 documents had already been released before then and with the U.S. mid-term elections scheduled for November 6th, some Democrats have indicated they want to slow down these proceedings until after the elections take place. While Republicans have signaled they want to get Judge Kavanaugh confirmed to the High Court before the elections.

一些民主党议员表示，他们需要更多时间来审查4.2万份与卡瓦诺法官有关的文件，这些文件在听证会开始前一晚才公布。共和党人则表示，此前已经公布了超过50万份文件，另外，由于美国将于11月6日举行中期选举，一些民主党议员希望将这些程序推迟到选举之后。而共和党人则表示，他们希望卡瓦诺法官进入最高法院的提名能在中期选举前完成。

Analysts expect that Judge Kavanaugh's nomination will move forward as scheduled despite yesterday's delays.

分析人士认为，尽管昨天出现了延误，但是卡瓦诺法官的提名将按计划推进。

The U.S. Constitution doesn't specify how many justices need to serve on the High Court and the actual number of them fluctuated until Congress set the number at 9. That happened in 1869 and it's been that way ever since.

美国宪法没有明确规定最高法院大法官的人数，实际人数一直在变动，只到国会将人数定为9人。大法官人数在1869年确定，并一直延续至今。