BSA POV: Kavanaugh Nomination

On September 27th, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh testified in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. This testimony was part of Kavanaugh’s attempt to be confirmed to the Supreme Court after being nomi- nated by President Donald Trump. The confirmation created lots of controversy, with Democrats calling for his nomination to be revoked and an FBI investigation to be opened up, while Republicans call for the testimony to be thrown out and a vote to take place immediately. Although Kavanaugh was confirmed by a slim 50-48 majority on Saturday, members of the Seabury community still have strong opinions on whether he was fit to sit on the Supreme Court or be nominated in the first place.

Faculty member Laura Porter has a very strong opinion about Kavanaugh: “I am vehemently opposed to this nominee because he strikes me as radically conservative on issues I care about, especially women's rights...Based on what I've learned of Kavanaugh's past, I believe he is flat out lying about his conduct while partying, both in high school and college. Kavanaugh has not always treated women with ‘dignity and respect’ as he claims. Simply put: UGH! and NO! to a lifelong appointment to the Supreme Court.”Senior Darwin Michener-Rutledge is not surprised by Trump’s decision to nominate Kavanaugh: “I am surprised at how much controversy this has caused, based on how many people are supporting him. I think [Kavanaugh’s confirmation] will really form our president and this country on how we treat sexual assault and belief in sexual assault survivors. Dr. Ford coming forward and risking her reputation to keep an accused rapist off the Supreme Court is more patriotic than anything he could do with the position.”Junior Malcolm Maude has a very detailed opinion: ”He is a sort of a icon of the misogyny in American culture. I don’t know necessarily if he is the one who should be that icon, but he is the one nominated to the Supreme Court, so he sort of got made that icon by being that. I’m not saying he isn’t a misogynistic person, because he is, I’m just saying he is an icon of the misogynistic culture.”About the controversy surrounding the nomination, Maude says, “I think that it shouldn’t even be a controversy, especially if he denied it and it got shown to be true. There are multiple instances of it. There are ways that he could have made it into something that is as bad as it is, but he just was like, ‘I cate- gorically deny it!’ which was really stupid. That was the worst possible way that he could have handled it.”Senior Jack Blonigen has a slightly different opinion than the majority of this school: “In terms of Kavanaugh himself, I think Trump chose him because he needed someone more moderate to appeal to moderate senators.”He says about the sexual assault allegations, “In terms of the controversy, I think the Democrats are desperate and I feel like it was very shady, given how long they knew about the Ford allegations not to re- lease them immediately. What we have basically in terms of the hearing is [Ford’s] word and Kavanaugh’s word against each other, and none of Ford’s four witnesses backed her up. Even with no evidence we automatically have to believe the accuser, and as a man living in this country it makes me uncomfortable, and I think it’s one of the negative aspects of the #MeToo movement.”Eighth grader Luke Havener’s opinion is short and sweet. “I think that he is a jerk. I’ve seen the inter- views and I think he is a butt.”Although we all have different opinions, we can all agree on one thing: this controversy has torn the country apart even more, and unless we can find something to agree on, this will only keep getting worse.

#Issue2 #pov2