The Reasons Why The Brett Kavanaugh Case Matters

Compelling testimony was given on both sides of the table to the Senate Nominating Committee this week. We heard from Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh. They were both passionate about what they were saying. But, did President Trump save Kavanaugh by aggressively standing by his nominee? Did the President’s denouncing of Dr. Ford help those that were undecided?

The general acceptance of Trump’s attitude to women seems to have spread to embrace political figures who support him. The voters of the USA have set a dangerous precedence by accepting and retaining Trump and are caught up in the maintenance of their foolish decisions - admit they made a mistake or plough through regardless in the hope that all will eventually be well. It likely won’t and it is another sad day for America in the eyes of the world who sit and wait for the next major shift in the wrong direction. Even in legal matters we now have a political bias that is so obvious that it skews any hope of universal justice into the atmosphere. Political expedience trumps all other cards in this crazy game. If Kavanagh stands openly accused of sexual abuse he should not even be in the queue for the job unless and until he is proven to be innocent.

I believe the President is doing exactly what he promised to do while campaigning. He is stocking the SCOTUS with conservative constitutionalists. If he does nothing else positive during his Presidency, he has been a success at this. I feel the new winds blowing in this nation because of President Trump. People are stronger, and there is more national pride. Justice Kavanaugh is a promise kept. My opinion is that the President is making great strides in keeping his campaign promises. I can see the point of those who say “If we allow unproven allegations to disqualify someone from the Supreme Court, we’ll never confirm another justice again.” That is a valid concern. We can disagree on how “unproven” the current allegations are, or how much evidence would be necessary before we consider an allegation likely enough to be a potential disqualifying factor. But those are all things that should be discussed, and have substantially wider ramifications than Kavanaugh’s confirmation. But, and there’s a big but in this particular case. There is strong evidence that Kavanaugh has lied during his sworn testimony to the Senate. That should be an immediate, absolute, non-negotiable disqualification.

Kavanaugh said he didn’t get blackout drunk. The evidence is that he in fact did. Now, I don’t particularly care if he drank excessively when he was a teen. But I do care if he lied about it. Kavanaugh is already a federal judge. Presumably, when people come before him in his court and swear to tell the truth, he expects that they will actually do that, even if the truth would be inconvenient, damaging to their case, or embarrassing. He should very much be held to the same standard in his sworn testimony to the Senate.

There is very substantial evidence that he has not met that standard, so in my view, we don’t even need to go farther than that. It may be impossible to determine whether a 35 year old allegation of sexual misconduct is true or not. But if he lied about anything, anything whatsoever, that should be the end of the discussion. We should expect the highest standards of ethical behavior from any federal judge, let alone a prospective Supreme Court justice, and lying to the Senate falls far, far below that standard, regardless of what our President has suggested.