Brett Kavanaugh - Sexual Assault Case
On July 10, 2018, President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to be a justice for the Supreme Court. He was nominated to be the replacement of Anthony M. Kennedy since he was to be retired of the spot. Throughout the course of the year following his nomination, many were concerned of his placement to be a Justice of the Supreme Court, since his views were worrying to some citizens. In mid-September 2018, Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, came out and accused Kavanaugh that he sexually assaulted her at a party in their high school days. Kavanaugh denies the claims but that hasn’t stopped other women to speak up. Although the allegations kept piling up, Kavanaugh and some close companions of his who were at the place where the incidents had happened deny any event that had happened. Other witnesses have claimed that Kavanaugh did not act like that in their youth. On October 6, 2018, Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed to be a Justice of the Supreme Court.
The article I chose to write about is from The Atlantic titled, “The Problem with #BelieveSurvivors” written by Emily Yoffe. In the article, she shares her concerns with today’s society of how citizens don’t believe women who have survived sexual assault. She states “Women who tell their stories should have the support, and belief, of loved ones, friends, and a therapeutic community” meaning no matter what, if someone accuses that some stranger has sexually assaulted the person, the public must lend their support for justice of the victim. She adds that every allegation must be taken seriously and not to be taken as joke. In her article she adds on how journalists can dissect the accuser’s background that can make the victim’s story stronger so others who have been assaulted in the past can come forth and speak up because they know they are not alone in the world. But she notices how the media tries to debunk Ford’s claim, with how politicians try to lose her credibility and how networks like SNL parody her claim, but they never seem to knock her down.
The reason why this is important to Yoffe is because she was in a similar place as Ford when she was around her age. She said that she never spoke out about the incident until 2012 was because she told herself that everything was fine but deep down, she knew it wasn’t. In her college days she reported on injustice on her campus and it made her feel she was doing good in the world by reporting these incidents which is why she thinks this case is important, so people can have the courage to speak up. The whole ordeal about the case for me has been a confusing one. For starters, every time I check my social media, I have seen people saying that Kavanaugh is guilty of sexually assaulting Ford and how the system is rigged to favor the white man. But when I watched a video about the case from CNN, in the comments below people have been saying that he isn’t guilty and that the democrats are getting desperate. I do not have any type of bias of this case whatsoever; I do not like Kavanaugh’s policies at all. It has been difficult to think thoroughly about the case, but I have come up with a conclusion.
I think that Kavanaugh is innocent about the allegations that he has been getting. They have interviewed sixty-five women and they defended Kavanaugh, with one woman saying, “for the entire time we have known Brett Kavanaugh, he has behaved honorably and treated women with respect, ” and there have been witnesses saying that no such event has happened in his youth. I believe in ‘innocent until proven guilty. ’ This does not mean that when a similar case is being presented, I will take it with a grain of salt. I will most likely side with the victim of the case until there has been a conclusion.
