Following the Kavanaugh/Blasey Ford hearing on Thursday, America Magazine, a Jesuit publication, published a piece titled, « The Editors: It is time for the Kavanaugh nomina
Following the Kavanaugh/Blasey Ford hearing on Thursday, America Magazine, a Jesuit publication, published a piece titled, « The Editors: It is time for the Kavanaugh nomination to be withdrawn. »
In the piece, the editors state that while they previously endorsed Brett Kavanaugh based on his strong textualist viewpoint and solid « legal credentials, » the allegations against the SCOTUS nominee have led them to withdraw their endorsement:
The editors continue, noting that if this were simply a legal or moral issue, Kavanaugh’s presumption of innocence « might settle the matter in his favor, absent further investigation and new evidence. » However, this nomination, they argue, has a wider scope:
Further, the editors state that because the role of the court has changed, becoming a near-political body, the nomination process has evolved – it’s no longer about simple capability, but about ideology (a fact they lament). After mentioning the way Senate Republicans treated the Merrick Garland nomination, they write:
The editors continue, claiming that because Ford’s « accusations have neither been fully investigated nor been proven to a legal standard, but neither have they been conclusively disproved or shown to be less than credible, » the Kavanaugh nomination should be withdrawn:
The editors conclude by noting that if Senate Republicans want to move forward, they must seek further investigation or risk confirming an individual who would cast a shadow over the court.
The nomination of a textualist judge is the proper move in order to potentially reverse decisions like Roe v. Wade and hand the abortion issue back to the states « where it belongs given the Constitution’s silence on the matter, » according to the editors. They add, however, that Brett Kavanaugh is not that judge, given the current circumstances.
