CommentsCOMMENTARY - Sexual predators don’t deserve to be on the Supreme Court. No way, no how. And now that we have two, we need to remove them, starting with the low-hanging fruit.
Use and abuse of women is a time-hallowed tradition in the good old boy clubs frequented by Brett Kavanagh, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, and their ilk. While there are too many more walking with entitlement in the halls of Congress, a majority of which but certainly not all are in the party of the old white males (see above photo of the 2017 Congressional Republicans).
Start by firing FBI Director Christopher Wray for lying to the Senate by claiming the investigation of Kavanagh was by the book when the FBI did not investigate the 4,500 tips submitted but just turned them over to the White House.
Then, don’t wait for the jamming of the wheels of justice to jam which occurs far too frequently for white collar criminals. Just rescind Kavanagh’s appointment as fruit of the poisonous tree. If he is truly innocent, he can appear before the Senate to see if they will anoint him again once an independent commission has reviewed those 4,500 tips and other evidence that has been revealed in the wake of his elevation to the Supreme Court.
Trial by the press – the press certainly has a better track record even in recent years than the FBI under Wray.
Character assassination by disgruntled women? Hmmm. Why would they be willing to speak up and put their shame on display to the peers of their abusers if they had not been abused?
The courts and other institutions in this country have a history of putting women down (in their place). That has got to stop.
If powerful rapists like Bill Cosby can be freed on a technicality, if an unrepentant home invader / rapist can be set free in Los Angeles because the DA’s office did not follow proper procedure, if two sexual predators can sit on the Supreme Court, how can any woman feel safe?
To date, only one federal Supreme Court justice has ever been impeached – Samuel Chase in 1804 for partisanship (of which a number of current justices are guilty) and he was exonerated the following year – but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done.
And Chase skated because he eloquently argued that he couldn’t be convicted for “errors in judgment” but only an indictable offense.
Now people might point out that the statute of limitations would complicate bringing charges on the rape charges – true – but perjury in Kavanagh’s statements (lies) to the Senate are both illegal and immoral.
Does the country deserve a Supreme Court (in)justice who has lied under oath, whose prime focus is covering his own ass and inflating his own ego by serving the interests of people who put their own ends before the means of truth, liberty, and justice for all?
Can American women, minorities across the spectrum, and those holding ideas deemed antithetical by the extreme right expect any justice while Kavanagh can weigh in on decisions that will affect their lives for decades?
In testimony to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, Harvard law professor Nikolas Bowie recently wrote: “As a matter of historical practice the Court has wielded an anti-democratic influence on American law, one that has undermined federal attempts to eliminate hierarchies of race, wealth, and status.”
Kavanagh has got to go and the sooner the better or all decisions made by the Supreme Court on which he sits will be tainted by his presence.
It may be a long way from Los Angeles to Washington, but Angelenos need to call their Representatives and Senators and start the ball rolling. Your voice and their futures depend on decisions made by the Supreme Court.
Together we can crush the misogynist creep known as Brett Kavanagh and save our country’s future
in the bargain.
(Liz Amsden is an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.) Photo: Gabriella Demczuk. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.