“So what does all this mean to Brett Kavanaugh and all the things I’ve been seeing on CNN and Fox News?” Well, imaginary person, I’m glad you asked…
Fast forward to July 9th of this year. The White House announces that it has chosen Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the D.C. Federal Circuit, the second highest court in the U.S. only behind the Supreme Court. Immediately, his conservative beliefs, specifically related to Roe v. Wade, were called into question by Democrats within the Senate. Despite this, Kavanaugh certainly had the credentials and prior experience necessary to do the job effectively.
Jump to September 4th, 2018. After relative silence in the media, Judge Kavanaugh appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the American people for his confirmation hearings. At this point, all Kavanaugh really had to do to secure his appointment was not to display any premeditated bias on possible cases he would hear. All he had to do was behave himself. The hearings, which occurred from September 4th through the 8th were rather uninteresting to the average viewer. While there was a bit of controversy related to some unreleased documents of his, the hearings were all together like any other one we have seen in the past. Of course, there was a fair amount of partisan grandstanding, but that was to be expected in the political climate we live in.
Fast forward to July 30th, 2018. 21 days after his initial nomination by Trump and 36 days before the initial confirmation hearings were slated to start. On the 30th of July, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, sent a letter to Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California detailing a sexual assault by Kavanaugh that was inflicted upon her while at a party in high school. She requested that the letter remain completely anonymous and that her allegation not be made public. The next month, Dr. Ford took a polygraph (lie detector) test which was administered by a former FBI agent verifying that what she has said is true. Despite this, polygraph results are inadmissible in court.
Jump forward to September 12. Three days after the final hearing held in front of the Judiciary Committee. The Intercept reported that Sen. Feinstein was in possession of a letter containing evidence of sexual misconduct on the part of Judge Kavanaugh. Despite this, she made no mention of this during the initial hearing even though she is a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was reported within the next few days that Mark Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh, was also present during the alleged incident. He denied these allegations wholeheartedly via a letter written under oath.
On September 16th, Dr. Ford decided to make her name public and the following day agreed to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The chaos that ensued in the testimony between the two (which occurred on Sept. 27th) was nothing short of madness. I could do an entire blog post on this alone, so for the sake of time, both testimony’s were essentially mutually exclusive. Below is a “highlight reel” of the hearing.
Various things were brought up during this hearing, including Kavanaugh’s drinking habits and his high school yearbook which contains possible innuendos and references to his debauchery. On top of this, two additional accusations of sexual misconduct have been brought against Judge Kavanaugh, though they certainly have not received the attention that Dr. Ford’s allegation has received. You can read a phenomenal article detailing these allegations here.
In light of this, the FBI conducted an investigation of the incident which was just released today. The investigation, which did not interview Kavanaugh or Dr. Ford, showed no new evidence of wrongdoing or corroboration of evidence. The confirmation vote is slated to occur Friday morning (tomorrow at the time of this writing). By the time you read this, Kavanaugh’s fate will likely have been decided.
Considering all this, there is a key battle occurring here that will have ramifications that extend long beyond Friday’s vote.
In the United States, we have a standard of “innocent until proven guilty” that is so pivotal to our justice system. This means that anyone can accuse anyone of anything, but without evidence that accused person cannot be convicted of a crime. Benjamin Franklin once said, “That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer.” Despite this, in the age of #MeToo where it seems we as a society are finally creating a hospitable place for victims of sexual assault to come forward, most people, myself included, want to believe the woman. Despite this, such a world creates a system of “guilty until proven innocent” that would be holistically destructive to our Democratic world. We want to give the benefit of the doubt to the person harmed, yet this dichotomy is one in which it appears neither can win.
Personally, I believe Dr. Ford. I’m not sure why it is that I believe her, yet I do. Maybe it’s the culture of sexual assault that I see on college campuses today. Maybe it is all the statistics about sexual assault that I hear on a daily basis. Regardless, I believe her. In this instance, one must take a leap of faith. This demonstrates a colossal failure of the criminal justice system in my opinion, as speculation is the ultimate opposition to the Truth that the system is designed to find.
No matter the side that you are on politically, you are forced to make a leap of faith. No one can definitively say what happened 35 years ago at the house party in Maryland besides Dr. Ford, Kavanaugh, and any witnesses – none of which have come forward. Considering this, I cannot fault Republican Senators, despite what I see as an insensitivity to women across the country, for voting for Kavanaugh tomorrow. Without evidence to go off of, I feel that they have reason to believe that Feinstein’s delayed leakage of the letter paired with the partisan mess that ensued is altogether disgusting. Though she denies it, Feinstein’s actions are damnable no matter what side of the aisle you identify with.
The way I see it, this situation is the ultimate lose-lose, and it is everyone in Congress’ fault. The Democratic mishandling will likely end in a Kavanaugh confirmation tomorrow. Should this happen, I feel that this will lead to a chilling effect for future sexual assault victims. Many will not come forward fearing humiliation and ridicule, especially because many sexual assaults lack evidence in the traditional sense. This would only make a horrendous aspect of living as a woman in America worse, as the Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey reports that only 1 out of every 3 sexual assaults are reported.
On the other side of the coin, Kavanaugh may not be confirmed tomorrow. While I see this as unlikely, I feel this would create a new standard of “guilty until proven innocent” for accused men across the country. While I am in no way sympathizing with men who commit such heinous acts, there is an argument to be made that such a tool could be used politically by opponents to destroy any man’s career. While I see this as a less serious consequence, I still feel that this would create a genuinely dangerous world. Anyone could accuse anyone of anything, and with such a standard we would see the justice system mimic fascist regimes of 20th-century Europe.
Regardless of the outcome, it is clear that this situation will do nothing to improve the polarization of parties that is present in the United States political climate currently. It is clear that this marks the end of smooth SCOTUS confirmations. Further, one can be certain that the Court is not the apolitical institution designed by the Founding Fathers. Tomorrow we will see the outcome of this circus… it is my hope that those 100 Senators make the correct choice.
Great info and writing. I have been loosely following the Kavanaugh hearings and I believe you have done a great job expanding on what is already out there, and allowing the lay person to understand what is going on. I agree with your rationale behind your opinions as I share them.