Instead of expressing respect and sympathy for Ford and calmly suggesting that she was mistaken in thinking that he sexually assaulted her, he ranted and shrieked and tossed off accusations and lies that demonstrated, to my surprise, that he clearly does not belong on the Supreme Court of the United States. Even if he did not do what he is accused of, the way he presented himself was truly shocking, immature, irrational and uncontrolled.
No person with that degree of emotional instability belongs on the highest court in our land. Kavanaugh revealed himself to be untrustworthy in precisely the way justices of the Supreme Court must be trustworthy. They must be calm, thoughtful, open-minded, respectful and mature; Kavanaugh has made strikingly clear that he is none of these things. That, in itself, is a compelling reason not to confirm his nomination to serve on the Supreme Court.
Over the past half-century, I have had the privilege of getting to know, to varying degrees, most of the individuals who have served on the Supreme Court since 1968. None of them — none of them — would have behaved in the truly immature and reprehensible way Kavanaugh did before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is simply not fit to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court. If President Donald Trump, Senate Republicans and the Federalist Society care at all about the integrity of the Supreme Court as an institution, it is time for them to go back to the drawing board. They can do better, and they should.
Geoffrey R. Stone is the Edward H. Levi distinguished service professor of law at the University of Chicago.
No person with that degree of emotional instability belongs on the highest court in our land. Kavanaugh revealed himself to be untrustworthy in precisely the way justices of the Supreme Court must be trustworthy. They must be calm, thoughtful, open-minded, respectful and mature; Kavanaugh has made strikingly clear that he is none of these things. That, in itself, is a compelling reason not to confirm his nomination to serve on the Supreme Court.
Over the past half-century, I have had the privilege of getting to know, to varying degrees, most of the individuals who have served on the Supreme Court since 1968. None of them — none of them — would have behaved in the truly immature and reprehensible way Kavanaugh did before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is simply not fit to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court. If President Donald Trump, Senate Republicans and the Federalist Society care at all about the integrity of the Supreme Court as an institution, it is time for them to go back to the drawing board. They can do better, and they should.
Geoffrey R. Stone is the Edward H. Levi distinguished service professor of law at the University of Chicago.
