Supreme Court nominee should not be confirmed
A question plaguing the nation this week is if Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh should be held accountable for the sexual assault accusations made against him from when he was in his youth.
As a nation we are asking ourselves, is it possible for an unjust person to hold such an esteemed position with the ultimate goal of seeking equality and justice?
I say it’s impossible. Yet Kavanaugh is continuing to rally conservative support behind his nomination amidst three women, as of last Wednesday, coming forward and accusing him of sexual misconduct.
Kavanaugh’s case parallels that of Anita Hill and Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991.
These three women saw that their assailant was up for a prestigious national position as an arbiter of justice and chose to make the truth known to the public. They are using this period of sexual assault victims’ empowerment and augmented awareness of sexual assault through the #MeToo movement to call out their abuser.
And yet, there are still men in power claiming these accusations are false in efforts to protect their own integrity, while also making the accusations a pawn in a partisan war.
Some men in power have even gone as far as to say that these women are coming forward for attention.
These women coming forward are not people working to hinder patriarchal power as some extreme feminist group, nor are they working on behalf of “the Democrats” to directly target all Republicans holding political power. Most importantly, they are are not coming forward for the fame and attention.
Why would they lie to the U.S. government’s and nation’s face to get attention if they knew about the amount of backlash and threats they would receive?
These women are coming forward in order to make sure a criminal doesn’t hold the free seat in the Supreme Court.
They want their voices heard and they want to bring to light the unethical nature of sexual harassment in the workplace.
Many argue that the incidents were over 30 years ago, occuring when Kavanaugh was in high school and college. Kavanaugh reiterates this notion profusely, while denying each claim at the same time.
So, should he be held accountable for his 30-year-old actions? It would be downright immoral for me to say no.
No matter how old a perpetrator was, how intoxicated the perpetrator or victim was, or how long it took for the victims to speak out, the assailant of sexual assault should always be held accountable.
In this extreme case, it is necessary for Judge Kavanaugh to be held accountable for these accusations in order to uphold the foundations of the judicial branch.
If one is to hold a seat in the highest appeals court in the nation, one must live a just life in order to fulfill one’s duties to the court. One cannot be a justice of the peace if one does not respect the nature of both justice and peace.
The very nature of his appointment is making a mockery of the very foundations of justice in our democratic institution, while taking an unprecedented jab at the #MeToo movement in discrediting women who have been victims of sexual assault.
If our government is to function in the most democratic way possible, each branch cannot be repleted with uncertainty and tainted reputations.
We need officials to have the utmost respect for the law and for every member of their constituency. Therefore, if Judge Kavanaugh is to hold Anthony Kennedy’s vacant seat in the Supreme Court, it is impossible for the integrity of our democracy to be upheld.
