This has been another week of fast-paced news and unprecedented events, particularly in the saga of Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s choice to occupy the seat on the Supreme Court left vacant by the retirement of Anthony Kennedy. The account of Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual assault of a 15-yer-old girl, who became a woman still struggling with the aftermath of that horror, broke over last weekend, and despite the Senate Republicans’ best efforts to smear and intimidate her, she and her army of #MeToo allies are not backing down. There is not doubt in my mind that Dr. Blasey Ford is telling the truth, if only because we already know that Kavanaugh is a liar, and not a terribly good one either. The Kavanaugh nomination is looking more and more like a sinking ship, though Republicans may still succeed in ramming it through. As compelling as this narrative has been, that’s not the focus of tonight’s diary.
Instead, I want to focus more on a concern that has been raised by certain legal commentators regarding the composition of the court, that is, it’s lack of diversity, in the context of the Kavanaugh nomination. Specifically, it has been pointed out that since the retirement of John Paul Stevens, all member of the court have obtained their law degrees from ivy league institutions, specifically Harvard or Yale. (Stevens got his degree at the University of Chicago.) While these institutions have well-deserved prestige, they are not the only excellent laws schools in the US, and certainly it is possible to find judges with degrees from other law schools whose experience might broaden the perspective of the current court. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has observed, when you have someone on the court who has lived experiences different from the majority, the court will tend to make fairer decisions.
Kavanaugh is just another Harvard Law grad, but that’s not the worst of it. He also shares something else with the most recent SCOTUS appointee, Neil Gorsuch: their high school! Both Kavanaugh and Gorsuch are graduates of Georgetown Prep, the Jesuit institution that has been mentioned in recent news as a hotbed of student drinking and other misbehavior in the 1980s. Both of these rich white men were born and raised in high privilege, in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. They are born and bred swamp creatures. Their ambition from an early age was to wield power in the federal government, whose center was not ten miles from where they were born and raised. They were children of Reagan, coming of age during the presidency of that great huckster who brought the art of selling appearance over substance in government to new depths, and they drank deep the ideology of the right wing. Gorsuch managed to achieve his aim, and Kavanaugh, despite his current damaged status. is still likely to join him. Their perspective is one of ease in the corridors of power, and they are just fine with making a career buttressing the advantages of the rich and powerful.
Sweet Jesus, is it impossible to nominate two SCOTUS justices in a row who at least didn’t attend the same high school?
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From MikeTheLiberal:
Highlighted by jazzed and Cmae, a comment by Mathy Kathy.
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From Paul A:
The comment by sts069 to the Abbreviated Pundit Roundup nails a hilarious description of Ted Cruz.
From denim:
DRo’s posting of Tea Pain’s twitter response to Trump’s smear of Dr. Blasey Ford.
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