BA on Assignment

October 10, 2018

Brett Kavanaugh

Confirming a United States Supreme Court Justice is a big deal. But the process can be convoluted. We just experienced how divided… political… partisan… biased it can be.

So we now have our newest Justice… Brett Kavanaugh. But were we best served by the process? Here are some facts to consider:

While the Judicial branch of government functions independently, it is not without it’s politics. The justices are chosen based on their conservative or liberal leanings… like Republicans and democrats make decisions based on their conservative or liberal leanings. Sounds like a match, right?

Fact: Brett Kavanaugh was nominated by a Republican President with the intent to tip the balance of power on the court to the right. So he went into confirmation hearings with the support of the majority in Congress and a firing squad by the minority. Expected…

But the investigation into his background is open to inquisition…

His hearing turned on the accusation of a high school classmate who testified that she was sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh and one of his friends… in 1983… at a house party.

I think we all need to consider a few things:

1. High school house parties have a reputation. The SOP at high school house parties is ruckus. So the first thing we need to acknowledge is that we ALL know what happens at high school house parties…
2. This house party took place 30 years ago.
3. Brett Kavanaugh has been an officer of the court since 1990. Did the FBI investigate the 28 years he’s been an officer of the court?

How or why do you investigate a 30-year-old high school house party?

The FBI is a clandestine organization. They reveal results of their investigations, but rarely reveal the details that led to the results.

In Brett Kavanaugh’s case, there was discussion of a high school house party in 1983, but, little discussion of his time and activities in law school, his time and activities as he began his career and little to no discussion of his interactions with colleagues or subordinates throughout his legal career.

It seems less credible to do an investigation of a high school house party full of potentially irresponsible teenagers and more credible to fact-find with a fine-tooth comb though the details of his actions in his official capacity.

How did he treat the junior level staff? Did any of his clerks get interviewed? Fellow lawyers in the beginning of his career? This course of questioning would seem to reveal more about who is Brett Kavanaugh.

And what exactly did the FBI learn from this high school house party? Did they confirm that there was underage drinking? did they learn that there was loud 80’s music? Did anyone vomit?

Sexual assault or even the accusation of sexual assault is real and should not be discounted. We’ve learned how pervasive it can be and how rampant is actually is. Christine Blasey-Ford’s account of what took place was credible. It deserved our attention.

Boys who behave badly often turn out to be men who behave badly. Did the FBI consider using the house party in 1983 as a starting point for identifying Brett Kavanaugh as the type of high school boy who would behave in this way and thereafter, hunt and peck through his career – in his official capacity – to reveal those same behaviors?

If they did, it was not reported to the voting public.

If Brett Kavanaugh was the kind of boy who would sexually assault a girl, what’s the likelihood that as he traveled through college, then law school, then his career, he didn’t exhibit the same types of behaviors? 28 years of people interactions is likely to be more revealing than a Georgetown Prep house party on Nebraska Avenue from 9 until…

If you think the FBI did the wrong investigation, you could be right…

Is it possible that Brett Kavanaugh is a Supreme Court Justice because the Senate Judiciary Committee and the FBI chose to investigate and interrogate based on a high school house party instead of the breadth of activity over the course of his career as an officer of the court?

We’ll never know now…