Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 8:38pm

Kavanaugh: Where Does the Logic Lead?

This may be more of a thought experiment than anything else, but I have a habit of always stepping back and looking at the big picture. Let’s suppose for one moment that what Judge Kavanaugh is accused of doing is true and he admitted it (so lying to the senate panel would not be an issue). Keep in mind that the man is not on trial; this is more like a job interview.

If true, then when Kavanaugh was a teenage boy he sexually assaulted a teenage girl. And because of this he should be disqualified from serving on the Supreme Court, regardless of a stellar record after the age of seventeen? Some might have second thoughts about voting “yes”, but if you really believe he should be automatically disqualified, back-up a bit for a better perspective.

  • Should such an individual be automatically disqualified from being any type of federal judge? If not, why not?
  • Should such an individual be automatically disqualified from being a judge of any kind anywhere? If not, why not?
  • Should such an individual be automatically disqualified from any public service occupation? If not, why not?
  • Who can provide us with a list of occupations such a person can or cannot be consider for due to immoral teenage behavior?

Now let’s step back from another direction… this allegedly happened when Kavanaugh was 17, right?

  • What if the accused was 16?
  • What about 15?
  • What about 13?
  • Who can tell us the proper age at which such behavior should no longer be considered for someone now in their 50’s…and in their 50’s with an impeccable record?

Another thing…whether the allegations are true or false, and if the Democrats succeed in keeping Kavanaugh off the court, and they still pick up a few seats here and there in the midterm elections, then unsubstantiated sexual accusations will become SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) against the GOP. People tried hard to demonize a total Boy Scout like Mitt Romney back in 2012…seems that was mere “child’s play” compared to what might be coming.

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Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 6:47am

Let us remember that this a WAR on WOMEN.
They have sounded this battle cry for nearly a decade now and we are to assume that they don’t mean it? This war has casualties and they don’t care who is in their way. Good hard working decent members of society… doesn’t matter.

This is war. They believe it..now, after this bs I believe it too.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 7:34am

I’m sorry, but this is a rabbit hole, and I won’t be Elmer Fudd

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 7:52am

Feminists want war? Give it to them. I was told that since I believe the Eucharist is Jesus’s Body & Blood, and Mary His Mother is Virgin, then I shouldn’t be allowed to work in nuke pwr. The millennial feminist who told me this was dead serious. So no never mind about my youthful indiscretions as a submarine sailor. I’m disqualified even if I am lily white pure.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 8:07am

He should be disqualified for being any sort of Judge, due to the action itself and because he would have had to have lied about it throughout his career. First, when he was admitted to the Bar. (Don’t laugh but there is an ethics requirement and he would have been bound under oath to reveal this before being admitted to the Bar.) A similar requirement would have existed during the process when he became a Judge. In the case of Judge Kavanaugh similar lies would have had to have occurred during the six FBI background checks he has undergone. I do not believe there is sufficient evidence to establish that Judge Kavanaugh did anything to Ms. Ford, but if there were, I would deem him unfit not only to be a Judge, but even an attorney.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 8:21am

I don’t believe there is sufficient evidence to establish that Brett Kavanaugh or Mark Judge were at all acquainted with Christine Blasey in 1982 or 1985 or any other time. I think it steals a base to call what she’s described a ‘sexual assault’ and the incident she describes could be readily shaded to make it appear it was something it was not. I’m not sure what the precise content of the questions asked by the Bar examiners or by the FBI would have been in 1990 or on any of the occasions he was subject to a background check, but if they weren’t asking about a fictional event, they’d still be asking about an event incorporating some ambiguity which never produced even a police report. You’d have to have granular information about what he was asked and how he replied to say that he lied.

Personally, I hate trolley problems and the like. Your question presumes omniscience – about precisely what happened and what the three participants were thinking when it happened. You’re not going to have that 36 years after the fact. As for culpability, age scales and nominal categories determined by age are conventions necessary to implement a law. They are animated by a general sense that personal agency is a function of age, but our understanding of agency and culpability is insufficient to offer a fixed standard that is just rather than merely conventional.

Mary De Voe
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 9:16am

Consider the Pauline Privilege and conversion to Christ. Being a new person in Jesus. All for the better.
I just got a little kinder to “uncle ted”

Mary De Voe
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 9:17am

But we do not know. But we do know that Bret Kavanaugh has led an exemplary life.

Donald R. McClarey
Reply to  Ben Butera
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 9:34am

The questions are quite broad Ben, at least in Illinois, and the candidate for the Bar has a requirement to disclose any information that is negative to his character. Failure to disclose is sufficient reason to deny admission to the Bar. Illinois has numerous cases on people refused admission to the Bar on lesser matters than this case, if the allegation was true.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 10:02am

Liberal hate truth like Satan hates holy water.

Our excellent Art Deco posted recently: “Judge Kavanaugh’s record affirms work, faith, family, neighborhood, and an approach to intellectual life which incorporates conscientiousness, mastery, and fidelity.”

Normal Americans and I knew she was lying from day-one. I don’t have to tiptoe around like an idiot Congress-critter [redundant].

Take a step back and get as sense of the big picture. The next time a liberal opens his or her mouth, assume that evil person is lying. You’re welcome.

Stop reading if you are offended by anticharity. Jeff Flake earned his place in Hell between Ted Kennedy and John McCain. The sooner he gets there the better.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 10:17am

On St. Patrick’s Day 2017 Professor Fraud posted on facebook concerning the Gorsuch nomination, “Someone should accuse him of rape.” Thatv was scrubbed.

The plot has been operative since 2012 when PP put out propaganda pieces that Romney would nominate Kavanaugh who would be the fifth vote to overturn Roe. Enter Professor Fraud stage left. “Hey! I went to a HS where many of the girls partied with private HS boys including Georgetown Prep where Judge K graduated. I’ll anonymously accuse him and his nomination will be trashed.” It didn’t work. Trump is not a spineless Republican. He fights back.

There is no justice. There is no truth. Lex Talionis

Donald R. McClarey
Reply to  T. Shaw
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 10:27am

“On St. Patrick’s Day 2017 Professor Fraud posted on facebook concerning the Gorsuch nomination, “Someone should accuse him of rape.” Thatv was scrubbed.”

That is an internet myth as far as I can tell T. Shaw. However, I find her testimony dubious and suspect on a number of grounds.

DonL
DonL
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 11:54am

If this is a standard for a judge, than should it not also be a standard for all those who practice law? Indeed, if one is to be an officer of the court, should it not apply to them? I would surmise that we’d have a lot of empty courtrooms and even law schools.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 11:59am

And besides demonizing Romney, I think many people forget how the left attacked and demonized Herman Cain with a quite similar modus operandi to hell they attempted to destroy Clarence Thomas. Where did all those women go? Back into the shadows.

And remember how nearly nobody in the GOP stood up for judge Roy Moore, when the obviously forged your book came out, and then, a gaggle of other “decades-later” accusers? Then all those women went also back into the shadows

This is what a good football offensive coordinator does. If the defense can’t stop a play, you run that play over and over, right and left, right and left, until they either adjust or you run them off the field .

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 12:30pm

I just received my presidential emergency alert test!

Mac, I kind’a knew it. I am simply playing by their rules. My internet myth has more truth than Professor Fraud’s fabrications.

Instapundit posted that a GA Senator says all Republicans will vote
“yes.” Please God. I’ll be beside myself if this goes the wrong way. It’ll ruin my whole afternoon.

Donald R. McClarey
Reply to  T. Shaw
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 12:38pm

Yeah, I think all Republicans will vote in his favor and be joined by Manchin. The other Red State Dems up for re-election have the problem of either alienating most voters in their states by voting against confirmation or voting yes and having their activist base go nuts against them. Manchin is popular enough in West Virginia that the kooks revolting against him doesn’t matter, and West Virginians are deeply Red enough that a vote against Kavanaugh might cost Manchin re-election.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 12:53pm

Bill Nelson’s not quite as lurid a figure as Robert Byrd or Strom Thurmond, but he’s still someone more than a decade beyond the median retirement age in this country but running for re-election. He’s been in public office for 46 years and been in Congress for 33 years. He has a life expectancy of 10 years and wants to spend 6 of them on Capitol Hill. (Which, I suppose, is less peculiar than Dianne Feinstein, who has a life expectancy of 7 years and wishes to spend 6 on Capitol Hill).

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 12:56pm

Yeah, I think all Republicans will vote in his favor and be joined by Manchin.

Murkowski kvetched this morning that Trump had made fun of Blasey at a rally. How incredible do you have to be and how many lies do you have to tell about ancillary matters before people stop bleating that others should treat you with kid gloves?

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 1:03pm

If DiFi has a 7 year life expectancy, and should she win reelection, count on her to spend the next 6 years planning her reelection campaign so she can die in office.

Donald R. McClarey
Reply to  Art Deco
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 1:07pm

“Bill Nelson’s not quite as lurid a figure as Robert Byrd or Strom Thurmond, but he’s still someone more than a decade beyond the median retirement age in this country but running for re-election. He’s been in public office for 46 years and been in Congress for 33 years.”

No there, there Art. Too many politicians become only the politician and the man or woman within just shrivels up. Fairly pathetic. In contrast, the normally unemotional George Washington radiated sheer joy on his last day in office.

Philadelphia March 5, 1797

My dearest Friend, your dearest Friend never had a more trying day than Yesterday. A Solenm Scene it was indeed and it was made more affecting to me by the Presence of the General, whose Countenance was as serene and unclouded as the day. He Seem’d to me to enjoy a Tryumph over me. Methought I heard him think Ay! I am fairly out and you fairly in! see which of Us will be happiest. When the Ceremony was over he came and made me a visit and cordially congratulated me and wished my Administration might be happy Successful and honourable.

It is now Settled that I am to go into his House. It is whispered that he intends to take french Lave tomorrow. I shall write you, as fast as We proceed.

My Chariot is finished and I made my first appearance in it Yesterday. It is Simple but elegant enough. My horses are young but clever.

In the Chamber of the House of Representatives, was a Multitude as great as the Space could contain, and I believe Scarcely a dry Eye but Washingtons. The Sight of the Sun Setting full orbut and another rising tho less Splendid, was a novelty.

C.J. Elsworth administered the oath and with great Energy. Judges Cushing, Wilson and Iredell were present. Many Ladies.

I had not Slept well the night before and did not sleep well the night after. I was unwell and I did not know whether I should get through or not—I did however. How the Business was received I know not, only I have been told that Mason the Treaty publisher Said We should loose nothing by the Change for he never heard such a Speech in Publick in his Life.

All Agree that taken all together it was the sublimest Thing ever exhibited in America.

I am my dearest friend most
affectionately & kindly your

John Adams

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 1:28pm

No there, there Art. Too many politicians become only the politician and the man or woman within just shrivels up.

Louise Slaughter could have had a handsome pension had she retired in 1997, at age 67. She had a husband, three daughters, and seven grandchildren. She wasn’t spending much time with them. She died in office last March. Her husband died in 2014.

(The man who’s the favorite to replace her is a 62 year old state legislator who has been in elective office without interruption since he was 28). Not sure he ever had any adult vocation other than elective office and being on the staff of elected officials.

GregB
Wednesday, October 3, AD 2018 10:24pm

Donald R. McClarey wrote:
*
No there, there Art. Too many politicians become only the politician and the man or woman within just shrivels up. Fairly pathetic. In contrast, the normally unemotional George Washington radiated sheer joy on his last day in office.
*
I’ve noticed this in the business world. The proverbial empty suit, where there is no one home.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Thursday, October 4, AD 2018 3:34am

Art Deco wrote, “[O]ur understanding of agency and culpability is insufficient to offer a fixed standard that is just rather than merely conventional.”

Crimes inferring infamia, which would exclude a candidate from the Faculty of Advocates are perjury, subornation of perjury, theft, reset, forgery, swindling and the like “which are universally felt to be of a base and degrading nature, springing from a sordid and deceitful disposition, not to a mere quarrelsome or fiery temperament.” (Sir Archibald Alison).

I think the distinction is a sensible one. Cases held not to infer infamy are common assault, mobbing and rioting, sending challenges, rash driving, smuggling and deforcing excise officers among others.

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