Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Kavanaugh, Accuser to Testify under Oath on Monday
The accusation of attempted rape leveled against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has delayed the vote to have been held Thursday to report his nomination out of committee. Instead, he and his accuser, Professor Christine Blasey Ford, will testify before the Senate Judicial Committee under oath about the alleged incident. It is largely a he-said, she-said situation, and in a criminal case, the presumption of innocence might be enough for Judge Kavanaugh to prevail. This is not a criminal case (solely), but rather a situation in which a man is being appointed for life to he highest court in the land with a charge of attempted rape hanging around him. The politics of it may be unfair, but sufficient doubt exists to disqualify him. He is not pure as Caesar's wife.
The crux of the issue is a general lack of transparency in the process while the Republicans who control the Senate endeavored to side-step the established process and fast-track the appointment without adequate review and consideration. The administration has withheld a hundred thousand documents, and dumped 42,000 on the public the night before the opening of the hearings. The advice and consent function has been a joke.
As a result of this breach of practice, one of the skeletons in Judge Kavanaugh's closet has appeared just ahead of a vote that may make or break his nomination. A less-hurried approach to the matter would have allowed adequate investigation and consideration of the matter. Either the nominee would have been cleared with minimal pain caused to all involved, or his nomination would have been withdrawn, sparing the nation embarrassment.
In Maryland, where the alleged assault occurred, the statute of limitations for attempted rape is one year if the attack is a sexual offense in the fourth degree. Engaging in sexual contact without consent is clearly what happened and is considered a fourth degree matter. It rises to a third-degree offense if a weapon, strangling or serious injury is done or threatened. In addition, if the victim is incapacitated (including drunk), it is a third-degree offense. The troubling matter is that a third-degree offense has no statute of limitations. Judge Kavanaugh is still criminally exposed.
He is not about to be arrested, charged, tried and convicted. He will continue to sit on the federal bench in the DC Circuit (barring impeachment). Even if Professor Blasey, as she is known professionally, is perfectly convincing on Monday and even if Judge Kavanaugh invokes the Fifth Amendment, he is going to remain where he is. The partisan fighting in the Senate is not going away. He will receive protection from the right.
The question is whether he should sit on the Supreme Court, for which the bar needs to be higher than for the Circuit Courts. If the Republicans were wise, they would abandon this nomination now and find someone who agrees on jurisprudence with Judge Kavanaugh to put forward instead. The White House would need to admit an error in nominating him in the first place, and this administration lacks the intellectual honesty to do that.
Monday morning will be a circus in the Senate. The testimony will be worthy of a daytime drama, and the prurient interests of the public will be piqued, especially when Professor Blasey speaks. Judge Kavanaugh will have to walk a difficult tight rope to see off her allegations without looking like an anti-feminist oik.
The whole thing could have been avoided. Nothing could undo what happened, or did not happen, in the 1980s. However, handling all of this in a normal fashion would have prevented the current mess.
© Copyright 2018 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
Kensington Review Home
|
|
|
|
