20 September 2018 - Brett Kavanaugh Accused of Sexual Assault
Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford faces chorus of doubt, even after #MeToo
Cara Kelly and Sean Rossman (USA Today, 19/09/2018)
The handling of sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is more than a conservative vs. liberal fight over a high court seat.
The debate lays bare how sexual assault claims are minimized and victims' trauma misunderstood — even in the post-#MeToo age.
On Sunday, Christine Blasey Ford came forward with claims Kavanaugh and a friend took her into a room where he pinned her to a bed, groped her, tried to remove her clothes and put his hands over her mouth to muffle her screams at a house party in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., in the early 1980s, when he was 17 and she 15. Kavanaugh denies the allegations.
Trump says it's 'very hard for me to imagine' Kavanaugh assault allegation
Video (The Washington Post, 19/09/2018)
President Trump praised Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh on Sept. 19, and said it would be "very interesting," if his accuser Christine Blasey Ford "shows up and makes a credible showing."
Everyone Deserves Better Than This Senate Spectacle
The Editorial Board (The New York Times, 19/09/2018)
Whatever becomes of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s process for considering him has been a mockery from the start — a mockery of lawmakers’ constitutional responsibility and of the ideal that the court should be anything more than a political trophy.
The bulk of the blame lies with Senator Chuck Grassley, the committee chairman, and his fellow Republicans, who have abused their power by refusing to let their colleagues and the American people see over 90 percent of the documents relating to Judge Kavanaugh’s critical years in the federal government.
Judge Kavanaugh sullied the proceedings himself by testifying, under oath, in ways that were at best misleading, about his role in several high-profile actions taken by the George W. Bush administration, where he worked in the White House counsel’s office and as staff secretary to the president.
Kavanaugh and the rights of women
Brent Budowsky (The Hill, 19/09/2018)
On the transcendent matter of the rights of women, the fate of American women should not be determined by Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who are all conservative men, Senate Republican leaders who are all conservative men, a Supreme Court majority of five conservative Republican men, and a Republican president whose attitudes about women are legendary.
Engraved atop the United States Supreme Court are the timeless words “Equal Justice Under Law” which will someday be achieved in American life, law, politics and justice.
The vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh will be the most important vote ever cast and possibly the most important action ever taken by 100 members of the Senate — especially two women who hold decisive power over the legal rights of every woman and citizen in America.