Photo: Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images)
What's going on:
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has been accused of sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University. Ford to the Washington Post Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her when they were in high school while he was drunk, pinning her to a bed, groping her and covering her mouth. Kavanaugh has denied the allegation; however, there’s now some uncertainty surrounding his Supreme Court nomination. Kavanaugh and Ford will appear before the Senate in a hearing that has the potential to impact his nomination.
Another angle/my thoughts:
The midterms coming up put a certain time pressure on this situation. If the Democrats take the Senate, it’s less likely Kavanaugh (or any conservative) will replace Justice Kennedy. If Kavanaugh is not appointed by the midterms and the Democrats win the Senate, the “lame duck” Congress pushing Kavanaugh through would be somewhat hypocritical since the Senate never voted on Obama’s SC nominee Merrick Garland, who faced resistance from a handful of conservative members of the Congress (including Mitch McConnell who adamantly declared Obama’s appointment void) because the appointment was so close to the 2016 elections.
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/29/624467256/what-happened-with-merrick-garland-in-2016-and-why-it-matters-now
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/california-professor-writer-of-confidential-brett-kavanaugh-letter-speaks-out-about-her-allegation-of-sexual-assault/2018/09/16/46982194-b846-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a38a0f613d65
https://www.axios.com/brett-kavanaugh-sexual-assault-accuser-christine-blasey-ford-dd51d886-ed72-47dc-96f3-e07ef8e838bc.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/17/brett-kavanaugh-is-accused-sexual-assault-heres-why-republicans-are-hesitating-pause-his-nomination/?utm_term=.45efe8d47240
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kavanaugh-accuser-willing-to-testify-her-lawyer-says/2018/09/17/21db2860-ba6c-11e8-9812-a389be6690af_story.html?utm_term=.dcb09c5196ca
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/us/politics/kavanaugh-allegations-ford-palo-alto.html
4 comments:
I hope that the time pressure does not cause the government to do a less thorough investigation. It is important to take these allegations seriously considering that the justice will have an impact on our country. These accusations seem to be credible and should be treated as such. It would be a poor reflection on our country if we were to put a criminal on the Supreme Court, which is supposed to be neutral, just because he aligns more closely with a specific party. There are plenty of other qualified justices, so if need be, another could always be nominated.
I hope that the time pressure does not cause the government to do a less thorough investigation. It is important to take these allegations seriously considering that the justice will have an impact on our country. These accusations seem to be credible and should be treated as such. It would be a poor reflection on our country if we were to put a criminal on the Supreme Court, which is supposed to be neutral, just because he aligns more closely with a specific party. There are plenty of other qualified justices, so if need be, another could always be nominated.
There are many reasons why no-one should vote in favor of confirming Kavanaugh for Supreme Court. His record of unfailing support for presidential immunity to law, among other things should take him out of the running right off the bat. However, I do not see this accusation as a legitimate reason not to confirm him as a judge. In this issue, it is important not to conflate the idea of taking a woman's claim seriously and investigating with the idea of allowing such accusations to be used for political gain.
For context, the accuser did not publish this accusation - Dianne Feinstein did, and it should be obvious to anyone that this is one of the last resorts of the Democrats to stop this confirmation - a good faith effort to get him rejected based on an evidence-based accusation would have had to start much sooner.
I don't believe this hearing is likely to come with enough evidence against Kavanaugh that it will stop his nomination. The republicans have already shown that they don't care about Kavanaugh's questionable record as a judge, and his supposedly flawless character has been a talking point throughout the confirmation hearing process. Even if the allegations against him are more likely than not true, the unusual timing and circumstance, and the previous republican efforts to affirm his character will lead many to repeat what they are saying now: that democrats are using this accusation as character assassination. And that point is difficult to argue against because there's no evidence against it.
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