In a live hearing before the US Senate Judiciary Committee, Professor Christine Blasey Ford accused Donald Trump’s nominee for the US Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, of sexually assaulting her 36 years ago.
ThePrint asks: Live questioning of Brett Kavanaugh: Destroying reputation or healing for survivors?
Kavanaugh questioning shows how the American system is robust and transparent
Maneesh Chhibber
Editor, Investigations and special initiatives
Donald Trump’s nominee for US Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh was publicly questioned – or grilled – by the US Senate’s Judiciary Committee and was streamed live.
While Kavanaugh’s unprecedented hearings have attracted a lot of attention and controversy, appointments of associate justices to the US Supreme Court have always been sharply divided on political lines. The last judge to be appointed – justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee – was also questioned rigorously as were justice Sonia Sotomayor and Elana Kagan.
But that is the beauty of the US system. The entire life and legal career of judges and their judgments are examined publicly in minute detail. Apart from the controversies, candidates are also asked questioned to assess their legal knowledge.
The live questioning of Kavanaugh or other candidates, even if the allegations are eventually proved baseless, only helps make the system more robust. It ensures that judges come out of the process with their integrity and prestige intact.
If this process is akin to destruction of reputation, what about trials in criminal cases, most of which end up in acquittals?
By comparison, the Indian system of appointment of judges is so opaque that nobody knows how and why a particular lawyer is picked by the collegium. Forget televised scrutiny, try getting even the bio-data submitted by the candidate to the collegium under the Right to Information Act.
Does anyone, including the Supreme Court judges who constitute the collegium, know about the previous judgments of those who are elevated to the Supreme Court? What about charges of nepotism they indulged in?
India is light years behind the US on transparency.
Important a nation watches powerful men held to account for assaulting women
Shivam Vij
Contributing Editor
Appointments of judges to the US Supreme Court are very political and partisan. Whether liberal or conservative, a US Supreme Court judge can’t be someone who’s himself committed a crime.
The Senate hearing of President Donald Trump’s nominee Brett Kavanaugh is a check and balance on the President’s powers to appoint anyone as a US Supreme Court judge. That this questioning was broadcast live is to ensure transparency. After all, the public has a right to see what their representatives and their government are doing. This right to know is what makes a country a democracy.
Kavanaugh was questioned on the allegations of having assaulted a woman – or actually three women on separate occasions. Even if the allegation has been about some other crime, such as murder or perjury, this hearing would have been broadcast live.
The live hearing might result in affecting a US Supreme Court judge’s reputation. Kavanaugh thought it was an opportunity to clear his name. It might also serve as a way of healing for the women he assaulted, but it could actually make them feel worse to see his antics, and his judgeship eventually confirmed. The live hearing, like any hearing, could go anyway.
It’s important that a nation watches powerful men held to account for assaulting women. It’s important that men in positions of power should come to fear being questioned in such a live hearing one day, having their career stalled by recantations of what do they do when they forget consent. It is a difficult conversation no doubt, but one that the world must have with itself.
Professor Ford has put her career at stake as much as Kavanaugh, if not more
Apurva Vishwanath
Special Correspondent
Many including Brett Kavanaugh himself believe that Professor Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations are nothing more than a smear campaign to tarnish his reputation.
In this whole exercise, Ford has put her career, personal life and reputation at stake as much as Kavanaugh, if not more. While he stands to gain the honour of serving the Supreme Court, she gets nothing.
It is simply male privilege that makes them want to escape consequences – investigation or even simply questions from women.
Yes, in today’s connected world, an allegation of sexual harassment becomes part of a man’s identity which he cannot hide. But let’s ask ourselves one question – what are the consequences for a man labelled as a sexual predator?
Absolutely nothing. Even convicted sexual predators face no social stigma or ostracisation that survivors do. Survivors are “victims” for life and are forced to relive their experiences every day.
In Kavanaugh’s circle itself – Justice Clarence Thomas went on to become an associate justice of the US Supreme Court and may even lead the court someday, despite the allegations. Donald Trump became the US President despite the allegations.
This impunity encourages men to exploit women. For example, think of men who cross the lines at workplace – they know it is against the law and inappropriate and yet they do it with impunity because they know all too well that there will be no consequences.
Live telecast of Kavanaugh’s questioning or public lists of alleged sexual predators are just attempts by women to reverse this sense of impunity.
Many criticise the Senate for overstepping its mandate in questioning Kavanaugh publicly on his high-school drinking habits and his character. But it is Kavanaugh and the Republicans who invited this. A proper federal investigation would have saved him the public embarrassment.
In India too, the pushback against gender laws and rights of women has been strong in the last few years. For a country that is always ready to sacrifice the “rights of a few” for greater “collective good”, it is ironical that men accused of sexual harassment garner such support.
Showing the proceedings live is one step closer to bringing women’s bodies out of darkness
Nandita Singh
Journalist
The first instinct for a victim is to stay silent because it’s embarrassing and scary. There is a thick, heavy blanket of silence and shame around sexual assault – and not because “it’s the worst thing that can ever happen to a woman” — but because we think that it’s the worst thing that can ever happen to a woman. Take other forms of physical violence – being punched in the face, or beaten with a stick – all barbaric, but somehow absolved from the burden of this very specific kind of shame. They are all psychologically scarring, but less likely to result in the victim feeling a sense of self-disgust or guilt.
We need to bring our bodies out of the darkness. Our ‘private’ parts have stayed private for too long, with our parents, friends, teachers and culture telling us that sex is a holy act, that women’s nipples are somehow scandalous to show. We are told if you’re an assaulted Indian woman your life is practically over because you’re now lesser in the eyes of society – broken, damaged goods.
So we tend to worry only about our fellow men’s reputation when a woman speaks up against them. Talk about money laundering, tax evasion, or charges of running a Ponzi scheme and somehow the rigorous due process is never questioned because “he’s cheating millions of Americans out of hard earned money, we have the right to know”. But one woman’s testimony just doesn’t make the cut.
But this is not the story of just one woman. It is my story, and your story, and my sisters’. We need to show the world what is happening – the act of showing, now, here, LIVE, is one step closer to bringing our bodies out of the darkness.
Also read: Time we listened to Tanushree Dutta and Christine Ford, not Brett Kavanaugh and Nana Patekar
Live senate hearing seemed like a release for white privileged men
Deeksha Bhardwaj
Journalist
Brett Kavanaugh’s live senate hearing was more about an acrid release for white privileged men than it could ever have been about healing for Christine Blasey Ford. How dare she, after so many years, when their alcohol-addled memories had dinned, rake up the past to destroy their nice family lives?
Ford broke down trying to recount the trauma she suffered at the hands of Kavanaugh (quite literally). Senator Lindsey Graham retorted, “What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold his seat open and hope you win in 2020”.
What should have been a free and fair investigation into multiple allegations of sexual assault has turned into an overt political statement. It is no longer about the many ills ‘frat-boy’ Kavanaugh may have perpetrated. It is now about him as a Republican candidate for the apex court. The entire charade was designed to deflect attention from Ford, the clearest example being Kavanaugh’s sentimental appeals and repeated public display of affection for beer. Who doesn’t like beer?
Kavanaugh’s testimony was designed to elicit an emotional reaction. And funnily enough, within the four walls of the senate, it did.
In civil society, however, the outrage persists.
Ford’s voice, courage and bravery, will not be silenced. The hearing was never about his reputation – that has been in tatters since Ford spoke up. It is about the impunity with which he acted, and the temerity with which he continues to lie about his actions.
Society as a whole, comes together to protect the ‘educated’, and often, the ‘powerful’ men from the consequences of their actions. We saw the same backlash when it came to Aziz Ansari, and even worse, Brock Turner.
But it is time that changes. It is time that Christine Fords of the world are able to claim their space, are able to heal, and move on with their lives.
The only reputation destroyed is of the US judicial system
Nikhil Rampal
Journalist
The long hours of live questioning of the US judge Brett Kavanaugh has exposed the brutal reality of a polarised audience. Whether it destroyed his reputation or it came as a relief to the survivors will depend on who the viewer is.
A viewer who associates with the conservative ideology or is a Trump-supporter, would have concluded that Kavanaugh emerged as the hero in the process. For a person who supports the #MeToo movement and has sympathies with the victim, Kavanaugh came across as evil. People supporting the victim Christine Blasey Ford are now sharing snippets of Kavanaugh looking like a fool. And people supporting Kavanaugh including the US president Trump are showing his angry moves as heroic.
If someone is going to be elevated to an important public position, it is imperative for the people to know about what the person has done in the past — good or bad. For Kavanaugh, the US judicial system will take its call, and if proven guilty, it may turn out to be the biggest achievement for the #MeToo movement. But the political lobbying on display for a Supreme Court judge’s appointment comes with a cost for American democracy.
The only reputation destroyed is of the US judicial system.
However, sitting here in India, I feel that this live screening doesn’t create much of a difference. Our ideologies, cultural affiliations, upbringing and socialisation shapes our sense of right and wrong. Watching the interrogation process isn’t going to change the position people take on such issues.
Live hearing gave opportunity, for once, to scrutinise demeanour of accused
Fatima Khan
Journalist
Much like most other harrowing experiences, sexual harassment isn’t the same for everyone. Neither is the experience of reliving it. When Christine Blasey Ford told her story to the world, many voices on the internet said in unison – Believe Survivors. Naysayers claimed that the idea of believing all sexual harassment allegations is dangerous.
But it isn’t as if Ford was spared from having to narrate her truth, the finer details of that dreadful evening of the summer of 1982. She did that not just in front of some of the most powerful men and women of the US but also in front of 20 million-odd people who watched her testimony live.
As a society, we are used to scrutinising victims of sexual harassment: from what she wore when the incident occurred to her relationship history to what her political leanings are now—everything is put under the scanner. The live hearing meant that Ford was still scrutinised to the T. Comments even from well-meaning individuals like “oh she is so calm” poured in — would it be a problem if she was livid with rage from all that she has gone through? Thankfully, the live hearing also gave the world an opportunity, for once, to analyse the demeanour of the accused.
The throwing of tantrums when asked about his drinking behaviour during his teens, the evading of questions when asked if he would want an FBI investigation to get to the bottom of the truth, and the sheer entitlement at display is so telling. The live hearing may or may not have brought us any closer to the truth, but it most definitely told us that Brett Kavanaugh is unfit to be the Supreme Court judge – a job that requires one to keep their emotions at bay and judge fairly.