There are so many points to the spotlight on Brett Kavanaugh, but the two topics I want focus on- the hearings and its similarities to the Anita Hill hearings. But most importantly, why we as students and as people need to pay attention to what’s happening. For those of you who don’t know, Brett Kavanaugh is President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee to replace the retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh graduated from Yale Law School and was Kennedy’s former law clerk. It’s important to note that former Justice Kennedy was the swing vote in favor of abortion rights, but President Trump has stated that he would only appoint justices who would reverse Roe and would allow states to determine the legality of abortion. With the nomination of Kavanaugh there is an assumption that he would do exactly what President Trump said he would want a justice to do.
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However, his nomination has brought forth a lot of controversy and Professor Christine Blasey Ford came forward to tell her story alleging that Kavanaugh had sexually attacked her when they were both in high school. As a political science major and someone who loves the subject itself, I couldn’t help but think about the sexual harassment allegations Professor Anita Hill made about Justice Clarence Thomas and the parallels to this situation. Senators Patrick Leahy, Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch all sat on the committee for Anita Hill and they are still part of the committee today. The Senate judiciary committee is made up of 14 members; during Anita Hill’s trial the committee was all male, but for the Kavanaugh hearings, there will be four women present.
There are a few differences between the cases. Anita Hill and Judge Clarence Thomas were both adults in the events that Hill had described and those events had also taken place over a prolonged period of time when Hill had worked for Thomas. On the other hand, both Ford and Kavanaugh were underage at the time of the assault. Both Hill and Ford took polygraph tests and passed. An important similarity between Hill and Ford is that they told the committee of their allegations before the nominees’ hearings. Although several claim that the reason Hill and Ford came forward was to “get attention,” the timing was before the nominations began. But the idea that someone who is a survivor of sexual assault came forward with their story to “get attention” is not only ridiculous in my opinion, but completely insensitive. Ford didn’t even want to tell anyone at first and it took about 36 years for her to tell someone.
During Hill’s testimony, Senators were harsh- Senator John Danforth had suggested that Hill might have “erotomania,” which is a condition where an individual harbors delusions that someone in a more powerful position is in love with that individual. The press and general public were also incredibly harsh on Hill, Pundit David Brock had described her as “a little bit nutty and a little slutty.”
The reason why I care about both of these stories is what it means for me as a woman. The way the committee and the way the public treats both Hill and Ford indicates how they view women and how they believe women should be treated. Why are our experiences constantly questioned and dismissed? Why do we have to go through reliving our worst nightmares, something we desperately try to repress because it hurts to think about, but the person who actually committed the crime is still lauded by so many others? Thankfully, the change in tone has shifted slightly from the time Anita Hill went through this, but there’s still disrespect and derision from some people when they talk about Ford. There’s no justice in the way that people ignore the traumatic experience of others and brush it off as “their way of getting attention.” We don’t know what they went through and no one has the right to say that “if it was bad as she says it was, she would have reported it earlier.”
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That’s why the #WhyIDidntReport movement on social media is also important. Other people get to share their stories and we get real life examples of why people didn’t report and if you read those reasons, they’re heartbreaking. It’s incredibly important to hear the stories of others and it’s even more important to make sure they don’t feel invalidated. A Supreme Court judge is supposed to be impartial, they are supposed to respect the law. During his testimony, Kavanaugh was yelling and crying and he is still being accepted but when a woman does it, she’s branded as hysterical and unstable, which we saw earlier in September with Serena Williams.Kavanaugh also seems to have committed perjury, which is a massive issue if he’s a nominee to be a Supreme Court judge. It may not be grounds as an impeachable offense, but it certainly calls his credibility into question and whether or not he actually respects the law. The United States Supreme Court is the highest and most pure court of law, we need to keep it that way. We need to care about what’s happening with Kavanaugh and the way we’re treating women and victims of sexual assault. We all need to care because if we don’t, then there’s no guarantee that our future and the laws we have in place will be serving all of us as well as they could.