Brett Kavanaugh Confirmed as the 114th Justice of the U.S Supreme Court

 

           This past weekend, the controversial Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, was confirmed by one of the slimmest margins in U.S. history. With the controversy surrounding accusations of sexual misconduct during his high school years, as well as his, often viewed as “irresponsible”, drinking and partying history, the confirmation vote was delayed for a week by a F.B.I. investigation. Mainly based around the accusations of Christine Blasey Ford, an American professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, as well as one of Kavanaugh’s high school classmates at Georgetown Preparatory School. According to Ford’s testimony, during a high school party, she was attacked by Kavanaugh and another classmate, who locked her in a room and sexually assaulted her. She said, “Both Brett and Mark were drunkenly laughing during the attack. They seemed to be having a very good time”. Despite the mass controversy and rather informal and irratic responses during the testimony, with Kavanaugh exclaiming his love of beer and high school parties, the following F.B.I. investigation was devoid of anything worthwhile. Thus, on Saturday, October 6th, Kavanaugh was confirmed as the newest addition to the Supreme Court. At a vote of 50-48, with all 49 republican senators voting yes, as well as one rather conservative Democrat senator (Joe Manchin of West Virginia), it’s clear that many democrats are dissatisfied with the outcome. For Republicans however, the Supreme Court is in a very favorable state. With currently 5 conservatives (Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh), and 4 left wing leaning justices (Sotomayor, Kagan, Breyer, Ginsburg), a lot of conservative based rulings will be made. Issues like LGBTQ rights, abortion, illegal immigration, and gun control are now more susceptible to change. This is why democrats are hoping for a “blue wave” in the coming midterm election this November. Their hope is that the mostly Republican congress will be retaken by democrats. Until then, voters can only review the candidates and hope for the best for their party.