Yale Law Professors Cancel Classes over Kavanaugh

Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh graduated from Yale University in 1990, but, his nomination by President Donald Trump has led to widespread liberal outcry in the media, on college campuses, on social media platforms such as Twitter, and protests. After his public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, several women have accused him of sexual assault when he was a teenager in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington, D.C., which Kavanaugh denied.

Democratic senators will most likely vote against the nomination and Republicans will vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but many observers believe some defections by Democratic Party senators representing more right-of-center states will tip the vote in Kavanaugh’s favor.

Kavanaugh’s accusers have not been able to corroborate their claims and have delayed the Senate confirmation vote at least one week, and at least one– Dr. Christine Ford– will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The specific terms of her testimony on Capitol Hill are still under discussion, such as whether senators will question her or legal counsel appointed by the committee will.

Meanwhile, at least 20 professors and faculty members at Yale Law School rescheduled or canceled 31 classes on Monday, September 24, so their law students can protest Kavanaugh’s nomination in Washington, D.C. or at the university’s law school. The university spokesman told Fox News, “Many individual faculty members chose[n] to reschedule or cancel their classes today, while some others held classes as usual. The classes have been rescheduled to another time in order to make time for the community to discuss issues surrounding the confirmation process.” For students who were not going to protest Kavanaugh’s nomination, the cancellations were a disservice to them. So far, the students have not indicated that their objections are anything but political, instead of focusing on Kavanaugh’s judicial record.

As we have noted here at Accuracy in Academia, college professors and students are outraged over Kavanaugh’s nomination due to outright animosity against conservatives, Republicans and President Trump. For example, a law professor at Louisiana State University (LSU) said people should sue the Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for using the judicial nomination process to nominate a Supreme Court justice. Also, there was an open letter written by Yale Law School students to the law school’s dean because the law school issued a supportive social media statement regarding Kavanaugh’s nomination. Harvard Law School’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA) said it will remain neutral during the Kavanaugh nomination, while some Harvard Law School students demand that Kavanaugh be barred from teaching a winter class the upcoming semester.

But, students of Kavanaugh’s at Harvard Law School have been supportive of his nomination, in addition to former girlfriends, female colleagues and former clerks. Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination will most likely be decided in a Senate floor vote next week, pending the results of this week’s hearing on Capitol Hill.

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