Yale Law School Calls For Further Investigation Into Allegations Against Former Student Brett Kavanaugh
Heather Gerken, the Dean of Yale Law School — where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh studied — has joined the American Bar Association in calling for a further investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh before continuing on with his confirmation process.
Yale Law School released a short statement on Twitter, with a message from Gerken saying that “proceeding with the confirmation process” would not be in the “best interests of the Court or the profession.”
“I join the American Bar Association in calling for an additional investigation into allegations made against Judge Kavanaugh. Proceeding with the confirmation process without further investigation is not in the best interest of the Court or our profession.”
Gerken had last week expressed “enormous concern” when reports claimed one of Yale’s law professors — Amy Chua, and her husband, Jeb Rubenfield — had been grooming female students, telling them how to be more “model-like” to get a job as law clerks in Kavanaugh’s chambers, according to The Huffington Post.
The call to further investigate its former student comes from Yale even as Republican Senators pushed through with a confirmation vote in the early hours of Friday. Democrats staged a walkout in protest, with Senate Dianne Feinstein accusing Brett Kavanaugh of “belligerent and aggressive behavior” during Thursday’s testimony.
“Judge Kavanaugh used as much political rhetoric as my colleagues,” she said.
“This was not someone who reflected an impartial temperament or the fairness and even-handedness one would see in a judge.”
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar seemed to weigh not only the Thursday testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, but also the accusations by other women against Kavanaugh — including those of Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez.
“This is not a ‘he said, she said,'” she says. “This is a ‘he said, they said.'”
BREAKING: The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted 11-10 along party lines to advance the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the Senate floor https://t.co/5MZ7hItCBW
— CNN (@CNN) September 28, 2018
Yale’s decision to join the American Bar Association for an investigation would further strengthen the argument against continuing with an immediate vote to confirm Kavanaugh. It also appears that Yale is not the only university which is willing to hear more about the accusations against Trump’s Supreme Court pick.
Kavanaugh had appeared distraught on Thursday, complaining that Democrats have “unleashed” such a damage to his reputation that it might lead him to leave his teaching role at Harvard Law School — where he does instruct classes. But according to the University newspaper The Harvard Crimson, Harvard students cheered when Kavanaugh said he might not teach again.
“I loved teaching law. But thanks to what some of you on this side of the committee have unleashed, I may never be able to teach again,” Kavanaugh had said.
However, students sitting in Harvard Law classrooms Thursday “applauded” and “burst out in cheers” when Kavanaugh said that he might not get to teach after what had happened over the last two weeks.
