For the first time in over three decades, the Washington Post editorial board is urging the United States Senate to reject a Supreme Court nominee.
The Post, which has supported nominees of both parties for decades, said the so-called FBI investigation was incomplete but that Kavanaugh had already proven himself unfit to be a Supreme Court Justice during his most recent Senate testimony, with or without the expanded background check.
“[T]he reason not to vote for Mr. Kavanaugh is that senators have not been given sufficient information to consider him — and that he has given them ample evidence to believe he is unsuited for the job,” the Washington Post editorial board wrote. “The country deserves better.”
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Unfortunately — and unnecessarily; it didn’t have to be this way — too many questions remain about his history for senators to responsibly vote “yes.†At the same time, enough has been learned about his partisan instincts that we believe senators must vote “no.â€
We do not say so lightly. We have not opposed a Supreme Court nominee, liberal or conservative, since Robert H. Bork in 1987. We believe presidents are entitled to significant deference if they nominate well-qualified people within the broad mainstream of judicial thought. When President Trump named Mr. Kavanaugh, he seemed to be such a person: an accomplished judge whom any conservative president might have picked. But given Republicans’ refusal to properly vet Mr. Kavanaugh, and given what we have learned about him during the process, we now believe it would be a serious blow to the court and the nation if he were confirmed.
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We continue to believe that Ms. Ford is a credible witness with no motivation to lie. It is conceivable that she and Mr. Kavanaugh are both being truthful, in the sense that he has no memory of the event. It is also conceivable that Ms. Ford’s memory is at fault. We wish the FBI had been allowed to probe Mr. Kavanaugh’s credibility more fully. But our conclusion about Mr. Kavanaugh’s fitness does not rest on believing one side or the other.
If Mr. Kavanaugh truly is, or believes himself to be, a victim of mistaken identity, his anger is understandable. But he went further in last Thursday’s hearing than expressing anger. He gratuitously indulged in hyperpartisan rhetoric against “the left,†describing his stormy confirmation as “a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election†and “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.†He provided neither evidence nor even a plausible explanation for this red-meat partisanship, but he poisoned any sense that he could serve as an impartial judge. Democrats or liberal activists would have no reason to trust in his good faith in any cases involving politics. Even beyond such cases, his judgment and temperament would be in doubt.
Republicans stand alone in their support of Kavanaugh
It’s unlikely that an editorial in the Washington Post will have an impact on the votes of GOP senators, but the fact that the newspaper took the unprecedented step of opposing Kavanaugh’s confirmation should give pause to anyone looking at this nomination fight objectively.
The editorial follows Wednesday’s stunning letter published in the New York Times by over 650 legal scholars who believe that Kavanaugh shouldn’t be near the U.S. Supreme Court.
Outside of the GOP bubble, the danger of a potential Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is obvious. It’s not just that he is an accused sexual predator. He’s also a political hack with a disturbing temperament.
If Republicans ram Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination through the Senate over the next 48 hours, they do so at their own peril.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
