14 in state sign letter opposing nominee

Fourteen law professors affiliated with the state’s two law schools had as of Friday signed onto a letter opposing the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

They joined more than 2,400 law professors in signing a letter stating that Kavanaugh, in testimony during a Sept. 27 Senate hearing, “displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land.” A confirmation vote on Kavanaugh could happen today.

The letter and names of those signing were published online by The New York Times, with the number having endorsed the letter increasing from the more than 650 who had signed as of Wednesday.

“It’s not that he got angry,” John DiPippa, a former dean of the W.H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said in a phone interview.

DiPippa said he signed the letter because Kavanaugh “transformed it into a partisan diatribe.” He also cited Kavanaugh’s response to questions by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., when Kavanaugh responded to a question about whether he had ever been unable to remember events after drinking. Kavanaugh responded by asking if she had ever blacked out after drinking.

“It wasn’t just her, but especially to her,” DiPippa said of Kavanaugh’s responses, calling him “disrespectful” to the Senate.

DiPippa said his signing onto the letter was not about Kavanaugh’s judicial ideology. Kavanaugh is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the

District of Columbia Circuit.

Carol Goforth, a University of Arkansas School of Law professor, said in an email that “regardless of his beliefs,” Kavanaugh’s “demeanor and clear expressions of disdain for the process and those who disagreed with him was deeply troubling.”

“I signed my name because I believe it is imperative that the justices who sit on the Supreme Court evidence the impartiality and judicial temperament that we have come to expect from an independent branch of government,” Goforth said.

Regarding alleged sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh, DiPippa said, “the things that are alleged against him, that’s for the Senate to reckon with.”

At the Sept. 27 hearing, Kavanaugh denied ever sexually assaulting anyone. He testified and was questioned after senators earlier heard from Christine Blasey Ford, who described Kavanaugh as attempting to force himself on her at a gathering of teenagers more than 35 years ago.

Ford testified that Kavanaugh and a friend of his pushed her into a bedroom and locked the door behind them, then Kavanaugh got on top of her and tried to remove her clothing.

The letter signed by law faculty did not cite the allegation as a reason to oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but did criticize Kavanaugh for his response to questioning.

“Instead of being open to the necessary search for accuracy, Judge Kavanaugh was repeatedly aggressive with questioners. Even in his prepared remarks, Judge Kavanaugh described the hearing as partisan, referring to it as ‘a calculated and orchestrated political hit,’ rather than acknowledging the need for the Senate, faced with new information, to try to understand

what had transpired,” the letter states.

A transcript of Kavanaugh’s remarks at the hearing includes this statement: “This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election. Fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record. Revenge on behalf of the Clintons. And millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups.”

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published online an essay by Kavanaugh in which he stated he “might have been too emotional at times” during the hearing and that he believes “an independent and impartial judiciary is essential to our constitutional republic.”

Other UALR-affiliated faculty who signed onto the letter are: Deborah L. Borman,

assistant professor; Coleen Barger, professor emerita; Kelly Browe-Olson, associate professor; J. Lyn Entrikin, professor; George Mader, associate professor; and Robert Minarcin, assistant professor.

The UALR Bowen law school has 35 full-time faculty and 28 adjunct faculty, said Tracy Courage, the university’s news director.

Additional faculty with the University of Arkansas School of Law who signed the letter are: Nicole Civita, affiliated professor; Brian R. Gallini, senior associate dean; Susannah W. Pollvogt, professor; Laurent Sacharoff, professor; Susan A. Schneider, professor; and Danielle Weatherby, associate professor.

The UA School of Law has 31 full-time instructional faculty and 40 part-time faculty, plus five law library faculty, said Darinda Sharp, the UA School of Law’s communications director.

Civita, who works remotely and part-time with the UA School of Law, said in an email that Kavanaugh “revealed the depths of his partisanship in a screed that was entirely unbecoming of a judge.

“Though it has been several years since I set foot in a courtroom, I dare not imagine what would have happened to me, as a member of the bar, if I had ever conducted myself similarly — it is simply not how we, as legal professionals are permitted to behave because we all have a part in preserving the public’s confidence in the courts,” Civita said.

Gallini, with the UA School of Law, said in an email that, should Kavanaugh be confirmed, “the 2400+ law professors who signed the letter will have to think long and hard about how (or whether) to teach the Supreme Court opinions he authors in classrooms across the country.”

Carol Goforth, a University of Arkansas School of Law professor, said in an email that “regardless of his beliefs,” Kavanaugh’s “demeanor and clear expressions of disdain for the process and those who disagreed with him was deeply troubling.”