Of the many articles I have read about the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States, among the most dismaying are those that document the willingness of Yale Law School students opposed to the nomination to ignore bedrock principles of American jurisprudence, specifically due process and the presumption of innocence. Even worse, they have been abetted in their cavalier dismissal of these principles by spineless faculty members who have canceled classes so these students can participate in manifestly non-academic, political demonstrations, where — if what one sees on television and reads in newspapers is accurate — the malevolent notion that Judge Kavanaugh should be presumed guilty until proven innocent is proclaimed to be the guiding principle by which disputes involving the most heinous allegations are resolved. In graduate school at Yale many years ago, I learned from my teachers in the history department, most notably the late Henry A. Turner Jr., that to be considered seriously, arguments that are testable empirically must be corroborated by empirical evidence. In the case of the Kavanaugh nomination, all of the evidence that exists not only fails to substantiate the allegation of attempted rape made publicly on national television by Christine Ford; it contradicts it. But the Yale Law School students, ostentatiously proclaiming their moral piety, have obviously ignored this undeniable fact, which only underscores their intellectual arrogance. The most charitable explanation I can come up with is that they missed the classes in their courses in which these principles were taught. A less charitable interpretation is that their professors do not consider these principles applicable when Republicans and conservatives are the objects of unsubstantiated accusations. That Sen. Richard Blumenthal, himself a Yale Law School alumnus, managed to appear at a meeting of such students is especially repugnant in light of the senator's serial lies about his non-existent military service in Vietnam. One has no choice, really, but to draw from this lamentable series of events the conclusion that these students have learned little or nothing since enrolling in Yale Law School. Should I ever need legal representation, I will make certain not to choose any of them. -- Jay Bergman is history professor at Central Connecticut State University and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Scholars.<doc-sep>"It’s a mix of anger and frustration and sadness — and also, for me, it feels very powerful and heartening,” she said, "to get to be a part of trying to change the story and the institution’s role in it.”<doc-sep>On Thursday, as he testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh responded to more questions about beer than he probably would have liked. At one point, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pursued a line of questioning about the “Beach Week Ralph Club,” a phrase that appeared in Kavanaugh’s yearbook next to his senior photo. Kavanaugh told Whitehouse that “Ralph” probably referred to vomiting, something that Kavanaugh attributed to his “weak stomach, whether it’s with beer or with spicy food or anything.” Whitehouse asked if the “Ralph Club” reference had to do specifically with alcohol, and Kavanaugh responded: Senator, I was at the top of my class academically, busted my butt in school. Captain of the varsity basketball team. Got in Yale College. When I got into Yale College, got into Yale Law School. Worked my tail off. It was a deflection, but the particular shield he raised was telling. His response seems to suggest a belief that a prestigious education stands as evidence of moral rightness. Kavanaugh’s fate will have a massive ripple effect. He offered the same defense when Senator Mazie Hirono brought up the fact that Kavanaugh’s freshman-year roommate recently remembered him as “a notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time.” First, Kavanaugh questioned his former roommate’s motives for saying such a thing. But then he said, “Senator, you were asking about college. I got into Yale Law School. That’s the number-one law school in the country. I had no connections there. I got there by busting my tail in college.”<doc-sep>While Brett Kavanaugh’s Yale pedigree was a key reason President Donald Trump tapped him for the Supreme Court, his years as an undergraduate there have become a source of heated controversy. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Kavanaugh Confirmation Yale turns on Kavanaugh A school long known as a breeding ground for activists has emerged as the epicenter of the Kavanaugh resistance. When Yale Law School put out a news release this summer congratulating Brett Kavanaugh, class of 1990, on his nomination to the Supreme Court, hundreds of students and alums expressed outrage. In an open letter, they blasted the institution for praising Kavanaugh’s professionalism and service to the law school while overlooking what they described as “the true stakes of his nomination.” “Is there nothing more important to Yale Law School than its proximity to power and prestige?” they wrote, describing Kavanaugh’s nomination as an “emergency” and a threat to “democratic life.” The law school, among the nation’s most prestigious, had issued similar pro forma statements congratulating other prominent alumni on their accomplishments, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor when she was nominated to the high court by President Barack Obama in 2009. But the protest elicited by the anodyne statement about Kavanaugh’s nomination was a preview of what was to come. In recent weeks, a school long known as a breeding ground for activists has emerged as the epicenter of the Kavanaugh resistance. POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Yale’s role in the Kavanaugh story goes all the way back to 1982, when the law school hosted a three-day symposium that gave birth to The Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization that has been influential in shifting the country’s judiciary to the right. It was The Federalist Society, which boasts ties to four of the nine Supreme Court justices, that gave President Donald Trump the list of potential nominees from which Kavanaugh was selected. A resulting irony is that, while Kavanaugh’s Yale pedigree was a key reason Trump tapped him for the high court, his years as an undergraduate there have become a source of heated controversy — including allegations of sexual misconduct by a fellow student, Deborah Ramirez — and the current student body at the law school, which is more attuned to politics, a locus of major protest against his nomination. "What gives it a special turn of the screw is that he’s a double Yalie and that so much of the attention has turned to Yale itself with the Deborah Ramirez allegations,” said Akhil Amar, a professor of constitutional law at Yale Law School. Amar, who penned a New York Times op-ed in support of Kavanaugh’s nomination shortly after it was announced, has since called for an investigation of the sexual assault claims against the judge. Allegations that another Yale Law School professor and Kavanaugh friend, Amy Chua, who ran Yale Law School’s clerkship program for several years and recommended several clerks to Kavanaugh from that post, told students the judge preferred attractive clerks and advised women to dress in an “outgoing” manner for their interviews with him have “poured gasoline on the fire,” said Amar. He defended Chua from accusations that he argues stemmed from the immaturity and oversensitivity of some law school students. “You go to law school and this is the transition from carefree college days to the real world of work, and you’re blaming the law school for the unfairness of the real world.” Chua, best known for her 2011 book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” has categorically denied the allegations against her. Law School Dean Heather Gerken in a memo told faculty members and students that the school is investigating “allegations of faculty misconduct” raised by recent news reports. After The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer — graduates of Yale Law School and Yale College, respectively — published Ramirez’s account on Sunday, dozens of law students contacted their professors demanding that they cancel classes on Monday in order to allow them to protest Kavanaugh’s nomination. Several complied. “This is what faculty support for, and solidarity with, student organizing looks like,” law student Dana Bolger wrote on Twitter, tagging James Forman Jr., a professor of criminal law and criminal procedure. She included in her tweet a screenshot of an email Forman sent to the class. “I just received a request to cancel class on Monday,” Forman wrote. “I understand that some students want to go to D.C. to protest or otherwise engage with the Kavanaugh hearings. Criminal Law will be canceled.” Forman did not respond to a request for comment. Bruce Ackerman, a professor of law and political science, declined to cancel his classes, telling students in an email shared with POLITICO that he makes “a sharp distinction” between his own progressive political activities and his “role as a university professor engaged in encouraging all my students, regardless of their politics, to engage in free-ranging academic discussion and research.” “The idea that there should be an organized effort to close down classes is something that I very deeply oppose, and that was what they were trying to do, and some very substantial number of the faculty did indeed close down class,” Ackerman said in an interview, though he added that he has been impressed thus far by the tone and tenor of conversation on campus. More than 100 students traveled to Washington in recent days, descending on the Senate and the Supreme Court to register their complaints. On campus, more than 260 Yale Law School students — nearly 40 percent of the student body — participated in a sit-in on Monday, according to the New Haven Register.<doc-sep>
In this op-ed, Yale Law School student Dianne Lake explains why she and her classmates are protesting the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a Yale Law graduate. Last week, reports emerged of credible sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who is currently nominated to take the Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Anthony Kennedy after he retired. Yet since the announcement of Kavanaugh’s nomination and public support from some Yale Law School (YLS) administrators and faculty, YLS students have been deeply frustrated by the school’s praising of Kavanaugh's character, with no discussion of how his views on legal issues would harm the most vulnerable. The allegations against Kavanaugh (which he has denied) came about the same time as misconduct allegations against a prominent member of Yale Law’s own faculty. In a statement to The Guardian, that professor said he is not aware of the specific allegations against him because the university's "informal review" is anonymous, but that he was told they are "not of the kind that would jeopardize my position as a long-tenured member of the faculty." In the wake of these varied allegations, members of the YLS community gathered on Thursday, September 20, to discuss the role of the #MeToo movement, both in our own community and the legal community at large. This meeting drove dozens of student-group leaders to begin organizing around the very real threat that Kavanaugh poses to this country as a potential Supreme Court justice. As Yale Law Students Demanding Better, we began with a call to action, asking our classmates to join us in protesting the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh and this school’s implicit endorsement of him. We urged classmates to join us in calling for a full and fair investigation into the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh, either in Washington, D.C., or during a sit-in at Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut. Over the next 72 hours, more than 30 student organizers worked late into the night to fundraise for transport to the capital, coordinate logistics for the sit-in, and convince the YLS faculty to cancel classes so that students could protest. As a result, 32 professors cancelled classes on Monday, September 24, 115 Yale Law students travelled to D.C., and nearly 300 Yale Law school community members gathered for a sit-in, occupying the main YLS hallway. At the New Haven sit-in, we had a silent gathering, a teach-in regarding Kavanaugh’s potential impact, and an open speak-out. Students, staff, and faculty members bravely shared personal stories that included testimonials about how these recent events have impacted them, why they didn’t report experiences of sexual violence, personal accounts of the toxic culture that existed on Yale’s campus when Kavanaugh was enrolled, and why they believe Dr. Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez. We also walked out in solidarity with the national Time’s Up walk out. During our D.C. action, we gathered in Sen. Ben Sasse’s (R-NE) office, where several students spoke out about experiences with sexual violence. We also protested in the Senate rotunda, where 128 people — including two brave Yale Law School students — were arrested for engaging in civil disobedience. Standing in the same room where fellow Yale Law graduate Anita Hill gave her testimony during now- Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings, we — along with senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Christopher Coons (D-DE) — held a press conference to call on the Senate Judiciary Committee to fulfill their responsibility to this nation by conducting a thorough, impartial investigation into the serious allegations against Judge Kavanaugh.