In Re Kavanaugh ⸻ Story │ Record │ Discussion
An Unprecedented American Shitshow
Without any doubt, no matter which side of the political divide and/or substantive issues you come down on, the 2018 Senate confirmation hearings ⌥ for seating Judge (now Justice) Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court comprised the greatest public “shitshow” spectacle in American judicial history (eclipsing both the Robert Bork hearings ⌥ of 1987, and the Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill hearings ⌥ of 1991 ⌥ ⌥). Much has been written on the matter, so for now the main function of this Case Study on this website is limited to being only archival, not analytical. Even so, the account here will/must remain far from complete, given that the full story is so voluminous and yet to be fully processed.
Backstory; Nomination; Hearings; Confirmation; Swearing-In
Briefly, Brett Kavanaugh’s life is documented on his Wikipedia page ⌥. He’d been serving as a Judge of the Federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit since 2006, prior to his nomination on July 9 2018 by President Donald Trump to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. His Senate confirmation hearings spanned on Sep 4 – Sep 27, including very dramatic appearances by Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh on Sep 27. On Oct 6 the full Senate voted to confirm Kavanaugh’s nomination, and he was sworn-in later that day (followed by a public ceremony the following day).
As soon as Kavanaugh was nominated, the shit started hitting the fan (ultimately evolving into a full-fledged shitstorm). While (i) some nontrivial amount of the original criticism was certainly motivated by partisanship (since Kavanaugh was universally/correctly regarded as a political — not just judicial — conservative), essentially (ii) all of it had some at-least-arguable basis in objective/rational fact, given that Kavanaugh’s life as a public servant was largely an open book, hence copiously/reliably documented.
And then, on top of that already-known history, came (iii) serious allegations of sexual misconduct (jibing with then-current “#MeToo Movement”), from a high-school acquaintance of Kavanaugh’s, Prof. Christine Blasey Ford ⌥ (and others). And then again, (iv) Kavanaugh’s alcoholism became exposed when the book, Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk ⌥, published by Mark Judge ⌥, another high-school classmate of Kavanaugh's, surfaced. And then yet again, (v) the public was subjected first-hand to the coup de grâce of Kavanaugh’s own absurd performance of anti-judicial-temperament (especially his irrational hatred of Democrats/Liberals) at his Senate confirmation hearings. And then finally, even (vi) a sham FBI “investigation” ⌥ ensued. (vii) Etc.!
In sum, all of this craziness “sealed the deal” for many/most serious Americans: Kavanaugh is certainly guilty of multiple charges of Judicial Misconduct, and really doesn’t belong anywhere in the Federal Judiciary, much less on the Supreme Court, in any sane model of American society. For example, notably, 2400+ law professors publicly objected to Kavanaugh ⌥. (Hint to readers: this is a good opportunity to exercise your “Google kung fu.” Knock yourselves out, kids …)
But, rather than attempting to give here a long connected/discursive account of the whole sordid affair, we just let the above summary suffice (since we’re interested only in the Judicial Misconduct aspects, not the whole bloody thing).
Complaints Of Judicial Misconduct, Filed And Dismissed
While Kavanaugh’s Senate hearings were still in process, Complaints of Judicial Misconduct started pouring in against him — ultimately a remarkable 83(!) in all. On Dec 18 2018, these Complaints were released (in redacted format), at the same time they were dismissed (for brevity, the 3-digit numbers listed here are only the last three digits of the official long-form numbers, 10-18-90NNN, noting the gaps at 068, 108):
- 038 039 040 041 042 043 044 045 046 047 048 049 050 051 052 053 054 055 056 057 058 059 060 061 062 063 064 065 066 067 069 070 071 072 073 074 075 076 077 078 079 080 081 082 083 084 085 086 087 088 089 090 091 092 093 094 095 096 097 098 099 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122
It’s very hard to see how the Founders’s ideals for the federal judiciary have been upheld in the Kavanaugh case. The federal laws/rules for Judicial Misconduct are a joke.
- Announcement of Dismissal.
- The Judicial Order of Dismissal (and Refusal to Recuse).
- Tenth Cir. Judicial Misconduct Rules (see our Introduction for generalities on Judicial Misconduct).
- Totenberg NPR, ⌥.
- Biskupic, CNN ⌥.
- Feldman, Bloomburg ⌥.
- Gordon, People for the American Way ⌥.
- Marimow, Barnes, Washington Post ⌥.
- Naham, Law & Crime ⌥.
- Beherendt, Washington Post ⌥ (the author of Complaint 10-18-90073, above).
- Appealing Kavanaugh Dismissals ⌥.
- Appeal Dismissal.
- Petition for Review of Appeal Dismissal ⌥ ⌥ ⌥.
- Judicial Conference Dismissal ⌥ ⌥.
