She said/He said and the Supreme Court

By Hank Silverberg

I don’t know if Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a young woman when he was in high school or not. I can’t imagine any circumstances in which a woman would make such an accusation, leaving herself open to demeaning ridicule and even death threats, if the accusation was not true.  

I do know that the whole process for nominating Judge Kavanaugh, the hearings before the senate judiciary committee, the letter to Senator Diane Feinstein from Christine Blasey Ford making the accusation, and the subsequent media barrage, has left a very sour taste in my mouth. 

I wrote that lead on Sunday before word came that another woman has accused the judge of sexual misconduct. Two women coming forward adds more credibility to the allegations.   

  Judge Brett Kavanaugh
          (Photo courtesy of  DC Appeals Court)  

Sex crimes are not an easy topic to discuss, nor are they easy to prosecute. The most startling thing I saw this past week was a statistic showing that only 30 percent of sexual assaults ever get reported to police in the first place, and the numbers may have been lower back in the 80’s when the two separate encounters between Kavanaugh and the two women are alleged to have taken place. 

https://www.rainn.org/statistics

There are some other things that make this whole scenario nauseating. Both sides are rushing to find witnesses from incidents that happened over 30 years ago. I doubt most potential witnesses even remember they went to a party, who was there or who was not there.

Certainly, a woman who was assaulted would remember she was there, and most likely the attacker as well. So, is one of them lying? All of this, though, is not the only issue. Kavanaugh was probably a shoo-in to become Supreme Court Justice before Feinstein released the letter, which she apparently had for a few weeks and held back until the last minute. Releasing it at the last minute, no matter what the reason, makes it look more political than any moral outrage. President Trump, who is somewhat of an expert in dealing with sexual assault allegations, certainly thinks so. He called it political.  

The response from Republicans in the Senate also smells. Sexual assault is a serious accusation and we can’t put a man on the Supreme Court for life without even hearing from the women who say he assaulted them. The back-and-forth over when the committee would hear testimony and under what conditions was pure politics. It had nothing to do with the credibility of the accusers or the qualifications of the judge.

Then there was this: CNN asked a group of Republican women, all of whom were active in party politics, what they thought about a 36-year-old allegation, something that happened between a 15-year-old girl and 17-year old prep boy. Out of all I heard or saw since the story broke, this is the clip that angers me the most.  Click on the link and listen to the full exchange.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWcglh-0PIg#action=share

Yes, one of those women said THIS:

“Tell me what boy hasn’t done this in high school?”

I don’t know that woman. But I am one of millions of American men who never did what Ford says Kavanaugh did to her in high school, nor did I even think about it. The idea that these women think that because there was no intercourse it was just boys being boys with all their "testosterone" is profoundly appalling. My mother didn’t raise me that way, nor did I raise my daughters that way. There is nothing NORMAL about sexual assault.

Folks, you can say Judge Kavanaugh has a stellar reputation and would never do that. You can say Professor Ford is mistaken or remembers it wrong. You can say anything about what he said or she said.  But don’t you DARE say "what boy hasn’t done this in high school" and try to legitimize sexual assault. It was wrong in the 1970’s when I was a teenager, it was wrong in the 1980’s when Brett Kavanaugh was a teenager, and it is wrong right now. To treat it any other way or to downplay the impact on a victim is, frankly, disgusting. It doesn't matter if the comment comes from a frat boy, a Republican woman or a United States Senator.    

We have seen this before. Remember Anita Hill in the 1990’s testifying at Clarence Thomas’ hearing when he was nominated to the Court? Hill, a strong black woman, was questioned by a bunch of old white men, and had to sit through their implication that somehow she brought the sexual advances on herself, or had made them up. There was a three day FBI investigation, and eventually Thomas became a Supreme Court Justice.  But one has to wonder if every time the Justice hears arguments on an issue involving women’s rights, abortion, sexual harassment and other related cases, his own experience and the way Anita Hill was treated for standing up for herself plays into his vote. It cost her a lot, it cost Thomas nothing. 

One final thought. There is a lot floating around social media about "he's innocent until proven guilty."  Yes, he is in a courtroom. But a Senate hearing room is not a courtroom, and he is not charged with a crime. Judge Kavanaugh, who sits now on the Court of Appeals  in D.C. is being considered for a lifetime appointment to our nation's highest court. A few days' delay for an investigation and a hearing will cost us nothing. Putting a man of low moral character on the high court will cost us a great deal down the road.    

Listen carefully to the testimony from Professor Ford or anyone else if and when it comes. Remember how the senators talk to her, what questions they ask, and how they vote on Kavanaugh's nomination. There are elections coming very soon. 

(Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Please note the comments and opinions on this blog are my own and do not represent any group or organization. )

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