1. Suppose, after watching the Kavanaugh hearings, you cannot decide whom to believe. Suppose you think Dr. Ford was credible, but so was Judge Kavanaugh. Yes, he got angry—but someone falsely accused of sexual assault would be expected to react angrily, right?
2. Or maybe you think that even if Judge Kavanaugh did what Dr. Ford said, she misinterpreted what was happening. Or you think that so much time has passed that his conduct does not disqualify him from being appointed to the Supreme Court.
3. If that’s where you’re at, the temptation is to simply ignore Thursday’s hearings as irrelevant.
4. But let me suggest that, even if you can’t make up your mind about what happened back in 1982, or you don’t really care, what happened *on Thursday* should make up your mind about whether Judge Kavanaugh should be confirmed.
5. My argument is this: Judge Kavanaugh clearly and repeatedly lied under oath on Thursday, and that alone is enough to disqualify him, even if he never met Dr. Ford in his life.
6. In a minute, we’ll get to *how* he lied. But first, *why* does it matter?
7. After all, politicians lie all the time. Bill Clinton lied when he was accused of sexual improprieties in the 1990s. Sure, he was impeached for it—but he survived the Senate and served out the rest of his presidency. He didn’t escape scot-free, but he didn’t lose his job.
8. But a judge is not a politician. A judge is subject to a much higher standard. This is not just my opinion; this is literally how the judicial system works. Lying under oath gets you kicked out of that system.
9. For example, the judicial system applied that higher standard to Bill Clinton. He was a member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar. After it became clear that he had lied, the Court revoked that membership—a decision he did not contest.
10. Bill Clinton was also a member of the Arkansas state bar. That license was suspended for five years, and he has never tried to have it reinstated. If he did, he’d lose.
11. The principle here is pretty simple: court proceedings are in large part about getting to the truth. It’s imperative that those conducting those proceedings (i.e., lawyers and judges) tell the truth. It’s a system that must value the truth.
12. If, instead, lawyers and judges are so contemptuous of the judicial system that they can take an oath to tell the truth, and then immediately disregard it, then they don’t belong in that system. Full stop.
13. That’s *why* it matters if Judge Kavanaugh lied. Before we get to the lies themselves, one more question: if he did lie, do his *reasons* for lying matter?
14. No. Maybe Judge Kavanaugh lied because he really did sexually assault Dr. Ford. Maybe he lied because he didn’t, and he understandably feels like the lies of others might prevent him from being on the Supreme Court.
15. Doesn’t matter. When you’re under oath, you don’t get to lie just because you know that, in the end, your side is in the right. If you shot someone, but it was in self-defense, you don’t get to say that you didn’t shoot them.
16. And, again, the prohibition on lying is doubly important when the person under oath is already part of the judicial system—and is seeking to be an even more important part of it. Tell the truth. It’s that simple.
17. Now, on to the lies themselves. A number of people have already done a great job of showing how completely implausible Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony was. The most comprehensive is from Current Affairs, so if you want the details, please read it. But here are three examples.
[Here is the Current Affairs article: currentaffairs.org/2018/09/how-we….]
18. “All the witnesses who were there say it didn’t happen.” Judge Kavanaugh said this about the party where the alleged assault occurred. It’s false.
19. At most, *one* of the people Dr. Ford identified as being there denies the occurrence—Mark Judge, who allegedly joined in the assault. The others simply don’t remember. And why would they? For them, if not for Ford, Kavanaugh, and Judge, it was an unremarkable night.
20. There is a huge difference between not remembering something and denying that it occurred. Judge Kavanaugh knows this. And he outright lied about it.
[Continued in next thread.]
