Due Process Matters<\/p>\n
The Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination has reached a new low.\u00a0 The Committee hearings on his confirmation were a political process; not so much a \u201cfinding of information\u201d than a sales (or hatchet) job.\u00a0 And now the Ford accusation makes that process even more political.<\/p>\n
For the purposes of this discussion, let\u2019s assume that the timing of the Ford accusation, after the close of hearings immediately before the Committee vote, was on purpose.\u00a0 It was a Democratic tactic to disrupt the \u201csteamroller\u201d to confirmation.\u00a0 It was purely political.<\/p>\n
Does that matter?\u00a0 The fact that the Ford letter was leaked, probably by a Democratic staffer, for a political end; does it change what is required of the Committee and the full Senate?\u00a0 It shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Bret Kavanaugh, the darling of the Republican political establishment, has been accused of committing what would have been a felony sex crime when he was seventeen years old.\u00a0 Maryland does not have a statute of limitations, so in theory he could still be prosecuted for such an act.\u00a0 And while there are many that would give Mr. Kavanaugh some kind of \u201cpass,\u201d the \u201cboys will be boys (and drunk boys worse)\u201d exception, it doesn\u2019t change the possibility that Mr. Kavanaugh may now be lying to the Congress and the American people about his actions.<\/p>\n
It deserves \u201cdue process;\u201d a thorough investigation into the charges.\u00a0 Mr. Kavanaugh should be welcoming such a search if he is telling the truth, it would serve to exonerate him. \u00a0He deserves more than just a few \u201cold men\u201d questioning, and then reaching a pre-arranged conclusion. \u00a0But he is silent, not asking for an investigation, and his Republican backers are clearly avoiding it.<\/p>\n
Who else deserves \u201cdue process?\u201d\u00a0 Dr. Blasey-Ford, who is the victim in the case.\u00a0 She is almost certainly a victim regardless of whether Bret Kavanaugh committed these acts, because it is most likely that the acts did occur.\u00a0 The number of sexual assault victims who \u201cmake it up\u201d is less than ten percent.\u00a0 And there seems little reason for Dr. Ford to enter this maelstrom of negative attacks other than a single compelling one:\u00a0 she believes she\u2019s telling the truth.<\/p>\n
The victim should have some presumptions too.\u00a0 She should have the presumption that her story may be true, and deserves more than just a \u201cgrilling\u201d in front of a Senate Committee.\u00a0 She deserves an investigation, one that the FBI could do in relatively short order.\u00a0 She deserves her \u201cdue process,\u201d and so do the American people, regardless of the political nature of the timing of the charge.<\/p>\n
We currently have one Supreme Court Justice who we reasonably believe sexually harassed his staff.\u00a0Justice Thomas, here twenty-seven years later, has never come out of the cloud Anita Hill placed on his term in office.\u00a0And there WAS an FBI investigation, even though the hearings on Ms. Hill\u2019s charges were still cut short.\u00a0Should the Republican majority ram-rod Judge Kavanaugh through without \u201cdue process,\u201d he too will be under a cloud.\u00a0While I expect he wouldn\u2019t say an investigation is \u201cfor his own good,\u201d it might be.<\/p>\n
What shouldn\u2019t happen?\u00a0Mr. Kavanaugh\u2019s good friend Ed Whelan, former Scalia Clerk and President of the Ethics and Policy Center (a conservative think-tank) put forward another suspect, a high school friend of Kavanaugh\u2019s, with diagrams of the house that match up to Dr. Ford\u2019s story.\u00a0 Mr. Whelan is allowed to investigate and reach conclusions accusing someone, but the FBI isn\u2019t:\u00a0 that\u2019s not \u201cdue process.\u201d<\/p>\n
So the maneuvering continues.\u00a0 Dr. Ford\u2019s lawyers are negotiating with the Republican leadership, and it\u2019s less than likely that there will be a \u201creal\u201d investigation of what actually happened.\u00a0Mr. Kavanaugh will likely be confirmed, and the Republicans will pay a heavy price at the polls in November.\u00a0Perhaps this will be the \u201clast gasp\u201d of the \u201cold boys club.\u201d\u00a0 \u201c#MeToo\u201d is strong in this nation, the \u201cold boys\u201d are old and losing control. Dr. Ford will become one more symbol of their unwillingness to find the truth, of their \u201cends\u201d of controlling the Supreme Court,\u00a0 \u201cjustifying the means.\u201d<\/p>\n
They are willing to do almost anything to control the Court majority:\u00a0 even a charade that the whole nation will see as faked.\u00a0 Sure it\u2019s politics; it\u2019s everything that we hate about politics.\u00a0 The price for it will be heavy, at the polls and someday in the Court itself.<\/p>\n
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