Hearing must have a single standard
Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz, a longtime civil rights lawyer and lifelong Democrat, has made waves in liberal circles by defending President Trump. Dershowitz spoke to the Herald’s Sean Philip Cotter yesterday about the hearing planned for Thursday, when both Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford are expected to testify, and his concerns about due process:
“Much stands on Thursday. It’s wrong for anybody to say at this point he’s lying or she’s lying. We just don’t know. People are just seeing what they want to see. Democrats basically are saying, ‘We hope he assaulted her,’ and Republicans are saying ‘We hope he didn’t.’
That’s why I am in favor of the FBI continuing its background check. I am in favor of the hearing — the American public wants to hear both sides. I’m in favor of her testifying and then him testifying. It can’t be the other way — that would be so against the traditions of America.
Though in the end, we won’t know much more. It’ll still be uncertain.
In the absence of a high level of proof, they should confirm him.
You need more than a toss up, more than 50-50 chance it happened, in order to vote against him. You need very significant evidence in order to disqualify someone from serving on the Supreme Court.
There will be some hard questions that both will have to answer. For example, he was a blackout drunk back in high school. Has he gone to Alcoholics Anonymous? What was his life like back then when he was 17? He’s going to have to answer those questions.
I know from firsthand experience that there have been drunks on the Supreme Court and drunks on other courts. I wouldn’t want to be before a judge who’s drunk. It’s a factor in the decision to confirm him.
It’s going to raise a paradox for Democrats because they don’t want those questions asked about women, but they’re fine with asking those questions in this case of a man. It’s all so political, and that’s wrong. It’s a double standard. You have to have a single standard.”