People are innocent until proven guilty. Period.
Kavanaugh shouldn’t be held criminally or civilly liable unless guilt is found via the legal process.
But appointments are not criminal or civil trials. The public, via its reps, can hold people to any standard they wish.
Kavanaugh shouldn’t be held criminally or civilly liable unless guilt is found via the legal process.
But appointments are not criminal or civil trials. The public, via its reps, can hold people to any standard they wish.
People often try to use the criminal presumption of innocence as a political argument, but it’s mostly silly. Just like you wouldn’t hire a teen babysitter that you heard wasn’t very responsible—despite your belief in a presumption of innocence—you might not appoint a judge.
None of this is to say Kavanaugh is guilty. Just that once a reasonably credible accusation is made, some of the burden may lie with him to respond to it, unlike in the criminal justice system.
This also isn’t to say that he is automatically disqualified if the accusations are true. Just as politics doesn’t allow the presumption of innocence to operate like it does in criminal cases, guilt doesn’t establish the need to be politically punished by exclusion form SCOTUS.
Ultimately, guilty or innocent, proven or not, this is for the public to decide, via its representatives. I’m comfortable with that ambiguity; you should be too. in a democracy, things are often messy.
