Good morning, Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.
But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)
GOP Senators Tell Christine Blasey Ford to Testify or They’ll Continue With Kavanaugh Vote
Republican senators have made it clear to Brett Kavanaugh accuser, Christine Blasey Ford: Show up on Monday, or we vote on Kavanaugh.
“She said she wanted to appear but if she changes her mind and refuses to appear, there’s not much we can do,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the number two Republican in the Senate, said of Ford, the California professor who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they both were in high school.
“We can’t force her to do that,” Cornyn said. “And so nothing really else would remain of the investigation and background of the judge and we would vote on the nomination.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley reiterated his invitation to testify before senators, either in public or in private, in a letter to Ford’s lawyers on Wednesday, ABC News reports. On Tuesday, Ford’s lawyers said she wanted the FBI to investigate her allegation before there was any talk of testifying, which is a sentiment that Senate Democrats have argued. Â
In a statement Wednesday evening, Ford’s attorney, Lisa Banks, wrote that “the Committee’s stated plan to move forward with a hearing that has only two witnesses is not a fair or good faith investigation; there are multiple witnesses whose names have appeared publicly and should be included in any proceeding. The rush to a hearing is unnecessary, and contrary to the Committee discovering the truth.”
Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who was one of the first Republicans to call on Ford to testify, agreed with Coryn on a Monday deadline, writing, “Republicans extended a hand in good faith. If we don’t hear from both sides on Monday, let’s vote.”
After learning of the allegation, Chairman @ChuckGrassley took immediate action to ensure both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh have the opportunity to be heard, in public or private. Republicans extended a hand in good faith. If we don’t hear from both sides on Monday, let’s vote.
— Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) September 19, 2018
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake urged Ford to testify, writing on Twitter: “When Dr. Ford came forward, I said that her voice should be heard and asked the Judiciary Committee to delay its vote on Judge Kavanaugh. It did so. I now implore Dr. Ford to accept the invitation for Monday, in a public or private setting. The committee should hear her voice.”
When Dr. Ford came forward, I said that her voice should be heard and asked the Judiciary Committee to delay its vote on Judge Kavanaugh. It did so. I now implore Dr. Ford to accept the invitation for Monday, in a public or private setting. The committee should hear her voice.
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) September 19, 2018
Late Wednesday afternoon, Grassley sent a new letter to Democrats on the committee, denying their request to delay Monday’s hearing and dismissing calls for the FBI to investigate Ford’s allegations.
“We’re not going to cancel any hearing until the last minute,” Grassley told ABC News. “I don’t know what the last minute is. But until the last minute in hopes that she’ll take us up.”
“We’ve gone beyond what we did the first day of just having the open hearing she asked for. Because we’ve heard she may not want to come into that environment so we offered one more closed session or two ways of doing it by transcript,” he said, referring to how the committee has offered to hear from Ford in an open or closed hearing.
When asked if Grassley thinks the allegations are credible, he said, “That’s why we’re having a hearing.”
Anita Hill Urges Senate to “Push the Pause Button” on Kavanaugh Confirmation
Nearly thirty years after she testified about her own allegations concerning now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill has called on the Senate to “push the pause button” on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation and take the time to put together a fair, impartial hearing.
“My advice is to push the pause button on this hearing, get the information together, bring in the experts and put together a hearing that is fair, that is impartial, that is not biased by politics or by myth and bring this information to the American public,” Hill said.
Shortly before Thomas’ confirmation, Hill accused him of making unwanted advances and lewd remarks during their time at the Education Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the 1980s. Thomas denied the allegations.
In an interview with “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, Hill told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos that she supports Ford’s request into her allegations against Kavanaugh.
“Absolutely, it’s the right move,” Hill said. “The hearing questions need to have a frame and the investigation is the best frame for that. A neutral investigation, that can pull together the facts, create a record, so that the senators can draw on the information they receive to develop their question.”
“Refer to Christine Blasey Ford by her name,” writes Anita Hill. “Dr. Blasey is not simply ‘Judge Kavanaugh’s accuser.’ Dr. Blasey is a human being with a life of her own. She deserves the respect of being addressed and treated as a whole person.” https://t.co/wiCyLC8cxQ
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) September 18, 2018
Hill, who is a professor of social policy, law, and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Brandeis University, wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times this week, writing that there is an opportunity to do things better than her hearing in 1991.
Hill wrote that a lack of a vetting process for sexual harassment allegations shows that the Senate Judiciary Committee has not learned anything from the Thomas hearing or the #MeToo movement.
“To do better, the 2018 Senate Judiciary Committee must demonstrate a clear understanding that sexual violence is a social reality to which elected representatives must respond,” she wrote, adding that such hearing should be guided by experts familiar with sexual violence.
Hill wrote in her Times piece that Kavanaugh has the “burden of persuasion” since he is the one seeking a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.
“It is an honor and a privilege to be nominated and to serve. It is not an entitlement and so a person coming into that position on the supreme court for a lifetime really has to have the full confidence of the American public. We need to be able to believe in the integrity of our courts, and that means believing in the integrity of the individuals who are on it,” Hill told ABC News.
Facebook Allows Companies to Place Job Ads for Men Only
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had promise to “fix” Facebook in 2018, and it looks like there’s still more to be fixed. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the social media company for allowing companies to target job ads based on gender, meaning that there are ads that are directed only at men.
The ACLU submitted a complaint on Tuesday to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that Facebook’s online ad platform allows companies to post ads that are only visible to men, thus excluding women and those who do not identifying as one particular gender or list their gender on their Facebook account. According to the ACLU, this practice is illegal and against the Civil Rights Act.
The ACLU is also suing 10 other companies for allegedly targeting certain individuals with their job postings on Facebook. While emphasizing gender discrimination in the lawsuit, the ACLU also alleged that employers could discriminate based on age, since some of the companies had targeted job postings towards younger men.
According to Fortune, the ACLU learned that companies were targeting only men after they clicked “Why am I seeing this ad?” and used the tool to search for some of the job postings.
The BBC reports that “Facebook is in the process of putting together data to dispute the findings and respond to the ACLU’s complaint.”
What to look out for…
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