The scariest thing to come out of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s debacle is how some of the most powerful people in the country have turned a cherished concept of American jurisprudence completely upside down: that of innocent until proven guilty.
For example, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said “there’s no presumption of innocence or guilt when you have a nominee before you.” Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) said Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford “needs to be believed,” and that men need to “just shut up and step up.” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) added that Kavanaugh’s nomination should be withdrawn due to the allegations against him.
At Kavanaugh’s alma mater Yale, thirty-one professors cancelled their classes to allow students to protest the judge’s SCOTUS nomination.
Now, today, an editorial in The Harvard Crimson keeps the ball rolling:
“To be clear, we find the allegations brought against Kavanaugh are serious, credible, and worthy of full investigation,” the Crimson editors write. They want that investigation partly because the judge is slated to teach a course at Harvard in the winter term.
What’s more, Harvard has “long enabled abusers to access the highest corridors of power”:
Kavanaugh’s glittering academic history at Yale — and now his appointment as a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law — does not make him beyond reproach for the crimes of which he is accused. Harvard should seriously consider the allegations against Kavanaugh, and be prepared to terminate his position if it finds them credible.
If it was up to the Crimson editors, Kavanaugh already would be canned since they just said the accusations against him are “credible.”
But here’s the really worrisome part:
We are tired of giving powerful men the benefit of the doubt. We are tired of their victims being treated as mere collateral damage — a footnote on an otherwise illustrious career path. There is no resume so spotless that it compensates for the moral depravity of sexual assault. Men like Kavanaugh have been embraced by the dominant political and cultural institutions of our country, and in maintaining its support for him, the White House now stands behind a man accused by at least two women of sexual misconduct.
Due process? Nah, “we’re tired of giving [certain people] the benefit of the doubt!”
This sentiment was echoed at a protest by the Harvard International Socialists last evening where two freshmen implored attendees to remember the concept of presumed innocence:
Neil K. Khurana ’22 and Oluwatobi I. Ariyo ’22 — strode up the steps to University Hall and asked for moderation and a fair hearing for Kavanaugh and his accusers.
“We have to make sure that due process is still upheld and innocent until proven guilty is still a thing that we hold true,” Ariyo said. “I mean, I don’t know if the accusations are true or not true, but —”
A member of the International Socialists cut Ariyo and Khurana off and thanked them for speaking. Several members of the crowd shouted “Go away!”
It would be interesting to hop into a hot tub time machine in order to see how American courts function 20-30 years hence. It’s an alarming thought.
MORE: Trump’s SCOTUS shortlist includes hero to campus due process
MORE: Students want due process – unless it means an accused rapist wins
IMAGE: Daniel Mennerich/Flickr.com
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