Brett Kavanaugh Will Not Return To Harvard Teaching Position As Student Backlash Grows

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will not return to Harvard Law School to teach in January 2019, the school said on Monday, an announcement made amid growing student and faculty backlash over allegations of sexual assault allegedly committed decades ago.

Kavanaugh “indicated that he can no longer commit to teaching his course in January Term 2019, so the course will not be offered,” said the associate dean and dean for academic and faculty affairs at Harvard Law School Catherine Claypoole in an email, as reported by CNN.

Kavanaugh was set to teach a course titled “The Supreme Court Since 2005” in the winter term beginning this coming January. As CNN observed, it is not immediately clear if Kavanaugh dropped out in anticipation that he would be serving on the Supreme Court or for other reasons.

The announcement was made as hundreds of Harvard Law alumni signed a letter urging the university to remove Kavanaugh as a lecturer, though the letter had not yet been submitted to the school’s dean on Monday at the time of Claypoole’s email, as the Washington Post reported.

Previously, hundreds of students and faculty members of Yale Law School, of which Kavanaugh is an alum, also protested his appointment to the Supreme Court, with more than 100 students taking to Washington, D.C., to demonstrate last week and more than 100 others filled the school’s hallway as they staged a sit-in, as the Inquisitr previously reported.

Kavanaugh has held the position of lecturer at Harvard Law for about 10 years, according to Politico. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week in which Kavanaugh defended himself against accusations brought forth by Christine Blasey Ford, Kavanaugh lamented that the accusations could prevent him from ever teaching again.

“I love 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 said, as quoted in the Politico report.

The letter began circulation late last week and racked up more than 800 signatures in less than three days, according to the Washington Post, a number that is even more impressive considering the “character and the work” of those signing it, said Jessica Lynn Corsi, a law lecturer at the school.

“Now more than ever, HLS must send a clear message that it takes sexual violence seriously,” the letter reads, as quoted in The Post report. “The accusations against Judge Kavanaugh, including those by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, are credible and grave. They seriously call into question his character and morality, and should disqualify him from… any position of esteem, including lectureships at HLS.”