(Indiana University - Maurer School of Law, Facebook)
More than 1,500 law professors across the country have signed a letter opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, including 38 professors representing all four law schools in Indiana.
The letter, delievered to the U.S. Senate Thursday afternoon, says Kavanaugh does not have the "impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of the land."
The Senate is expected to vote to close discussion about Kavanaugh on Friday morning. If that vote passes, the final vote would likely take place over the weekend.
The professors signing the letter have "differing views about the other qualifications of Judge Kavanaugh," and focus on his demeanor during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week in which Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, his accurser, testified.
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"Judge Kavanaugh exhibited a lack of commitment to judicious inquiry. Instead of being open to the necessary search for accuracy, Judge Kavanaugh was repeatedly aggressive with questioners," the letter says. "Instead of trying to sort out with reason and care the allegations that were raised, Judge Kavanaugh responded in an intemperate, inflammatory, and partial manner, as he interrupted and, at times, was discourteous to questioners."
The letter says Kavanaugh's lack of judicial temperament would disqualify him from serving in any court, "and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land."
Kavanaugh continues to deny all allegations of sexual misconduct.
Read the complete letter:
Open Letter to the United States Senate from Law Professors Around the Country
Judicial temperament is one of the most important qualities of a judge. As the Congressional Research Service explains, to be a judge requires that an individual have “a personality that is evenhanded, unbiased, impartial, courteous yet firm, and dedicated to a process, not a result.” [1] The concern for judicial temperament dates back to our founding; in Federalist Paper 78, entitled “Judges as Guardians of the Constitution,” Alexander Hamilton expressed the need for “the integrity and moderation of the judiciary.”
We are law professors who teach, research, and write about the judicial institutions of this country. Many of us appear in state and federal court, and our work means that we will continue to do so, including before the United States Supreme Court. We regret that we feel compelled to write to you to provide our views that at the Senate hearings on Thursday, September 27, 2018, the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land.
The question at issue was of course painful for anyone. But Judge Kavanaugh exhibited a lack of commitment to judicious inquiry. Instead of being open to the necessary search for accuracy, Judge Kavanaugh was repeatedly aggressive with questioners. Even in his prepared remarks, Judge Kavanaugh located the hearing as a partisan question, referring to it as “a calculated and orchestrated political hit,” rather than acknowledging the need for the Senate, faced with new information, to try to understand what had transpired. Instead of trying to sort out with reason and care the allegations that were raised, Judge Kavanaugh responded in an intemperate, inflammatory, and partial manner, as he interrupted and, at times, was discourteous to questioners.
As you know, under two statutes governing bias and recusal, judges must step aside if they are at risk of being perceived as or of being unfair. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 144, 455. As this Congress has put it, a judge or justice “shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” 28 USC § 455. These statutes are part of a myriad of legal commitments to the impartiality of the judiciary, which is the cornerstone of the courts.
We have differing views about the other qualifications of Judge Kavanaugh. But we are united, as professors of law and scholars of judicial institutions, in believing that Judge Kavanaugh did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of our land.
Signed, with institutional affiliation listed for identification purposes only,[See all signatories on the New York Times. See Indiana signatories below, as listed on the New York Times]
[1] See Congressional Research Service, “Supreme Court Appointment Process: President’s Selection of a Nominee,” June 27, 2018, at 12 (available at https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44235.pdf) (citing Miller Center of Public Affairs, Improving the Process of Appointing Federal Judges at 10 (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, May 1996)).
Signatories from law schools in Indiana:
Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Cynthia M. Adams, Clinical Professor of Law
Jeffrey O. Cooper, Associate Professor of Law
James D. Dimitri, Clinical Professor of Law
Jennifer A. Drobac, R. Bruce Townsend Professor of Law
John S. Grimes, Professor of Law & Director of the Center for Int'l and Comparative Law
Max Huffman, Professor of Law
Deborah B. McGregor, Clinical Professor of Law
Seema Mohapatra, Associate Professor of Law
Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Gerald L. Bepko Chair in Law
Florence Wagman Roisman, William F. Harvey Professor of Law and Chancellor's Professor
Nicolas Terry, Professor of Law
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Daniel H. Cole, Professor of Law and Public & Environmental Affairs
Pamela Foohey, Associate Professor of Law
Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Professor of Law
Charles Geyh, John F. Kimberling Professor of Law
Dawn Johnsen, Walter W. Foskett Professor of Law
Leandra Lederman, William W. Oliver Professor of Tax Law
H. Timothy Lovelace, Jr., Professor of Law
Sophia C. Goodman, Professor of Law
Dr. Jody Lynee Madeira, Professor of Law
Donna M. Nagy, C. Ben Dutton Professor of Law
Christina Ochoa, Professor of Law
Aviva Orenstein, Professor of Law
Jennifer Prusak, Associate Clinical Professor of Law
Victor D. Quintanilla, Professor of Law
Steve Sanders, Associate Professor of Law
John A. Scanlan, Professor Emeritus
Jeffrey Evans Stake, Professor of Law
James Alexander Tanford, Professor Emeritus
Carwina Weng, Clinical Professor of Law
Deborah Widiss, Professor of Law
Indiana University Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies
Shruti Rana, Professor of International Law Practice
Notre Dame Law School
Mark P. McKenna, John P Murphy Foundation Professor of Law
Christine Venter, Teaching Professor
Valparaiso University School of Law
Laura Dooley, Professor of Law
Edward McGlynn Gaffney, Jr., Professor of Law Emeritus
Bethany R. Lesniewski, Associate Professor of Law
Susan P. Stuart, Professor Emerita of Law
