Let's see, when it comes to sexual harassers put of the Supreme Court, There are two (Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh) and the score is:
Men Women
2 0
I have two lingering memories of the Kavanaugh nomination.
One is the anger showed by Sen. Lindsey Graham in which he threatened the Democrats to just wait until he becomes chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee
The other is the anger shown by Judge Brett Kavanaugh in his second round of hearings where he threatened what goes around comes around. i.e. he will get the Democrats when he is on the Supreme Court. * His face dripped with sneering out-of-control anger. And he read his statement so there is no misspeaking. Of course, he was told to get more aggressive. That is the Trump way, of course.
Curiously, Kavanagh is unqualified to be on the Supreme Court based on his own speeches. Of particular note is one given titled “The Judge as Umpire”—at the Columbus Law School at Catholic University in 2015:
To be a good judge and a good umpire, it’s important to have the proper demeanor. Really important, I think. To walk in the others’ shoes, whether it be the other litigants, the litigants in the case, the other judges. To understand them. To keep our emotions in check. To be calm amidst the storm. On the bench, to put it in the vernacular, don’t be a jerk. I think that’s important. To be a good umpire and a good judge, don’t be a jerk. In your opinions, to demonstrate civility—I think that’s important as well. To show, to help display, that you are trying to make the decision impartially and dispassionately based on the law and not based on your emotions. That we’re not the bigger than the game…There’s a danger of arrogance, as for umpires and referees, but also for judges. And I would say that danger grows the more time you’re on the bench. As one of my colleagues puts it, you become more like yourself—and that can be a problem.**
I guess I am going to have to give up all hope that Lindsay Graham will evolve into another John McCain. It seems up to Ben Sasse to take the roll if he wishes or, maybe, Lisa Murkowski.
Dr. Ford's testimony as to events at least passes the preponderance of the evidence test: she mentioned the incident during a counseling appointment in 2012, she passed a lie detector test, she brought the Kavanaugh incident up with her representative before Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court!
Since Brett Kavanaugh says he still likes beer, I can only hope he has his alcoholism*** under control and that it lasts. He could be what I call a functional alcoholic.
Also, I hope that at least a few times along the way while Judge Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court that he rules in favor of the people. Certainly, in the case of the 17 yr old pregnant illegal-immigrant girl, he forgot his impartiality and tried to stall the girl's wish for an abortion until she was in the 20th week of pregnancy so she would be ineligible for an abortion in Texas. Somehow, the girl got the court to rule on it and Kavanaugh was overruled.
I have the same wish for Neil Gorsuch. Considering Gorsuch's ruling on the Hobby Lobby case prior to it's getting to the supreme court makes it unlikely. In this ruling, it became legal for a business owner to dip into a law and on religious basis pick and choose what parts of the law the owner doesn't like and will not obey. Please note that this case was not about abortion, but about contraceptives. But one can hope.
* https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/27/brett-kavanaugh-defining-images-christine-ford-kavanaugh-hearing/1446178002/
** https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/10/kavanaugh-in-2015-a-judge-must-keep-emotions-in-check-and-not-be-a-political-partisan/
** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2018/09/sexual-attack.html
No comments:
Post a Comment