As of Thursday night, a letter published in the New York Times on Oct. 3 opposing the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has been signed by more than 2,400 law professors, 39 of which are IU and IU- Purdue University Indianapolis professors.
The letter will be presented to the Senate Oct. 4.
“We regret that we feel compelled to write to you, our Senators, to provide our views that at the Senate hearings on Sept. 27, Judge 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 letter says.
Kavanaugh and California professor Christine Blasey Ford were questioned in a Senate hearing last week about Ford’s accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while the two were in high school. The Judiciary Committee approved the candidate after tense debate Friday for a full Senate vote, but that vote was delayed up to one week to allow for an FBI investigation.
The letter specifically mentions Kavanaugh’s aggressiveness towards those questioning him.
It cites congressional statutes regarding bias with judges, saying judges and justices are supposed to be disqualified if impartiality is questioned.
The letter ended by saying the professors had differing views on Kavanaugh's other qualifications, but that they are ultimately united.
“But we are united, as professors of law and scholars of judicial institutions, in believing that he did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of our land.”
Clinical associate professor of law at IU, Jennifer Prusak, was one of the faculty who signed this letter.
“My reasons for signing it were pretty simple,” she said. “Leaving aside the truth or lack of truth behind the allegations that led to Thursday’s hearing last week, I thought that he showed a staggering lack of respect to the senators questioning him as well as an incredibly partisan viewpoint of the whole proceeding.”
She said she felt the extent to which he displayed such a partisan view worried her and made her feel he wasn’t fit for the supreme court.
Professor Emeritus of law at IU Alex Tanford said he signed the letter for similar reasons.
He said a lot of the worry from people comes from the fact that Kavanaugh's appointment to the court would result in a Republican majority.
However, he said he is not signing it because Kavanaugh is a conservative Republican. He is signing it because of the way Kavanaugh acted at the hearing.
“He completely lacks the calm, judicial temperament that one needs to be on the Supreme Court,” Tanford said.
He said he felt frightened by the very partisan comments Kavanaugh made.
“As lawyers and law professors we teach a legal system that is based upon the premise that judges will practice impartial judgment,” he said.
He doesn't feel that Kavanaugh would do so and is frightened by the possibility of him being confirmed. He said it would take a generation for the government to recover.
“It is frightening that the Senate Republicans are so determined to push this through,” he said.
Prusak said she was sent the letter by colleague Dawn Johnsen, another professor of law at IU.
Johnsen said she was sent the letter from two professor she knew, one at Yale and one at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis.
She circulated the email to IU faculty on Wednesday morning and many law professors signed it.
She said she believes the large response is due to how partisan Kavanaugh appeared at the hearings.
"I've never seen anything like it," she said. “It's just so absolutely clear the way he acted is inappropriate for someone who’s a judge."
For her, she said signing the letter was an easy decision even though she often doesn't sign group letters.
“This one was just absolutely clearly correct and so incredibly important and I just am very sad at the prospect of having someone on the Supreme Court who has violated fundamental rules of being a judge, impartiality and partisanship," she said.
This story was updated to include a new number of signees and information from Dawn Johnsen.
