Yale students protest Kavanaugh nomination
NEW HAVEN, CONN. — Dozens of students dressed in black staged a sit-in at Yale Law School on Monday to protest the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and demand an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Organizers said allegations of sexual assault and harassment should be taken seriously, and Kavanaugh poses a “real threat” to the country. Other Yale students travelled to Washington to protest Kavanaugh’s nomination on Monday.
“We are interested in making sure that the judicial confirmation process can be as fair and thorough as possible,” law school student Dianne Lake told the New Haven Register. “And that we as a community, as a country, as a nation, take allegations of sexual violence and sexual misconduct seriously and that we value the voices of women that come forward and treat them with the respect that they deserve.”
The sit-in came the morning after new allegations against Kavanaugh were reported by The New Yorker, which published an account by a woman, Deborah Ramirez, who alleged Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drunken dorm party when they were students at Yale during the 1983-84 academic year.
Another woman, Christine Blasey Ford, is accusing Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party when they were teenagers. Both Kavanaugh and Ford will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.
Kavanaugh, also a Yale Law School graduate, denies both women’s allegations, which U.S. President Donald Trump called “totally political.”
Some Yale faculty members cancelled or rescheduled law classes Monday to accommodate the protest.
“The allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are rightly causing deep concern at Yale Law School and across the country,” Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken said in a statement. “As dean, I cannot take a position on the nomination, but I am so proud of the work our community is doing to engage with these issues.”