Professor Christine Blasey Ford speaks out about alleged sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh

[jserraglio]

Washington Post

California professor, writer of confidential Brett Kavanaugh letter, speaks out about her allegation of sexual assault

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh denied committing sexual or physical harassment as an adult when asked by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) on Sept. 5.

By Emma Brown
September 16

Earlier this summer, Christine Blasey Ford wrote a confidential letter to a senior Democratic lawmaker alleging that Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than three decades ago, when they were high school students in suburban Maryland. Since Wednesday, she has watched as that bare-bones version of her story became public without her name or her consent, drawing a blanket denial from Kavanaugh and roiling a nomination that just days ago seemed all but certain to succeed.

Now, Ford has decided that if her story is going to be told, she wants to be the one to tell it.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Ford said that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend — both “stumbling drunk,” Ford alleges — corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County.

While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth.

“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” said Ford, now a 51-year-old research psychologist in northern California. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”

Ford said she was able to escape when Kavanaugh’s friend and classmate at Georgetown Preparatory School, Mark Judge, jumped on top of them, sending all three tumbling. She said she ran from the room, briefly locked herself in a bathroom and then fled the house.

Ford said she told no one of the incident in any detail until 2012, when she was in couples therapy with her husband. The therapist’s notes, portions of which were provided by Ford and reviewed by The Washington Post, do not mention Kavanaugh’s name but say she reported that she was attacked by students “from an elitist boys’ school” who went on to become “highly respected and high-ranking members of society in Washington.” The notes say four boys were involved, a discrepancy Ford says was an error on the therapist’s part. Ford said there were four boys at the party but only two in the room.

Notes from an individual therapy session the following year, when she was being treated for what she says have been long-term effects of the incident, show Ford described a “rape attempt” in her late teens.

In an interview, her husband, Russell Ford, said that in the 2012 sessions, she recounted being trapped in a room with two drunken boys, one of whom pinned her to a bed, molested her and prevented her from screaming. He said he recalled that his wife used Kavanaugh’s last name and voiced concern that Kavanaugh — then a federal judge — might one day be nominated to the Supreme Court.

On Sunday, the White House sent The Post a statement Kavanaugh issued last week, when the outlines of Ford’s account first became public: “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”

Through a White House spokesman, Kavanaugh declined to comment further on Ford’s allegation and did not respond to questions about whether he knew her during high school. The White House had no additional comment.

Reached by email Sunday, Judge declined to comment. In an interview Friday with The Weekly Standard, before Ford’s name was known, he denied that any such incident occurred. “It’s just absolutely nuts. I never saw Brett act that way,” Judge said. He told the New York Times that Kavanaugh was a “brilliant student” who loved sports and was not “into anything crazy or illegal.”

Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh denied Sept. 14 an allegation of sexual misconduct dating back to when he was a high school student. (Reuters)

Christine Ford is a professor at Palo Alto University who teaches in a consortium with Stanford University, training graduate students in clinical psychology. Her work has been widely published in academic journals.

She contacted The Post through a tip line in early July, when it had become clear that Kavanaugh was on the shortlist of possible nominees to replace retiring justice Anthony M. Kennedy but before Trump announced his name publicly. A registered Democrat who has made small contributions to political organizations, she contacted her congresswoman, Democrat Anna G. Eshoo, around the same time. In late July, she sent a letter via Eshoo’s office to Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

In the letter, which was read to The Post, Ford described the incident and said she expected her story to be kept confidential. She signed the letter as Christine Blasey, the name she uses professionally.

For weeks, Ford declined to speak to The Post on the record as she grappled with concerns about what going public would mean for her and her family — and what she said was her duty as a citizen to tell the story.

She engaged Debra Katz, a Washington lawyer known for her work on sexual harassment cases. On the advice of Katz, who believed Ford would be attacked as a liar if she came forward, Ford took a polygraph test administered by a former FBI agent in early August. The results, which Katz provided to The Post, concluded that Ford was being truthful when she said a statement summarizing her allegations was accurate.

By late August, Ford had decided not to come forward, calculating that doing so would upend her life and probably would not affect Kavanaugh’s confirmation. “Why suffer through the annihilation if it’s not going to matter?” she said.

Her story leaked anyway. On Wednesday, The Intercept reported that Feinstein had a letter describing an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school, and that Feinstein was refusing to share it with her Democratic colleagues.

Feinstein soon released a statement: “I have received information from an individual concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” she wrote. “That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities.”

The FBI received a version of the letter with Ford’s name redacted, according to a Republican official with knowledge of the letter, and then sent it to the White House to be included in Kavanaugh’s background file. The White House sent it to the Senate Judiciary Committee, making it available to all senators.

As pressure grew, the New York Times reported that the incident involved “possible sexual misconduct.”

By then, Ford had begun to fear she would be exposed, particularly after a BuzzFeed reporter visited her at her home and tried to speak to her as she was leaving a classroom where she teaches graduate students. Another reporter called her colleagues to ask about her.

On Friday, the New Yorker reported the letter’s contents but did not reveal Ford’s identity. Soon after, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) released a letter from 65 women who say they knew Kavanaugh when he attended high school from 1979 to 1983 at Georgetown Prep, an all-boys school in North Bethesda.

“Through the more than 35 years we have known him, Brett has stood out for his friendship, character, and integrity,” the women wrote. “In particular, he has always treated women with decency and respect. That was true when he was in high school, and it has remained true to this day.”

As the story snowballed, Ford said, she heard people repeating inaccuracies about her and, with the visits from reporters, felt her privacy being chipped away. Her calculation changed.

“These are all the ills that I was trying to avoid,” she said, explaining her decision to come forward. “Now I feel like my civic responsibility is outweighing my anguish and terror about retaliation.”

Katz said she believes Feinstein honored Ford’s request to keep her allegation confidential, but “regrettably others did not.”

“Victims must have the right to decide whether to come forward, especially in a political environment that is as ruthless as this one,” Katz said. “She will now face vicious attacks by those who support this nominee.”

After so many years, Ford said she does not remember some key details of the incident. She said she believes it occurred in the summer of 1982, when she was 15, around the end of her sophomore year at the all-girls Holton-Arms School in Bethesda. Kavanaugh would have been 17 at the end of his junior year at Georgetown Prep.

At the time, Ford said, she knew Kavanaugh and Judge as “friendly acquaintances” in the private-school social circles of suburban Maryland. Her Holton-Arms friends mostly hung out with boys from the Landon School, she said, but for a period of several months socialized regularly with students from Georgetown Prep.

Ford said she does not remember how the gathering came together the night of the incident. She said she often spent time in the summer at the Columbia Country Club pool in Chevy Chase, where in those pre-cellphone days, teenagers learned about gatherings via word of mouth. She also doesn’t recall who owned the house or how she got there.

Ford said she remembers that it was in Montgomery County, not far from the country club, and that no parents were home at the time. Ford named two other teenagers who she said were at the party. Those individuals did not respond to messages on Sunday morning.

She said she recalls a small family room where she and a handful of others drank beer together that night. She said that each person had one beer but that Kavanaugh and Judge had started drinking earlier and were heavily intoxicated.

In his senior-class yearbook entry at Georgetown Prep, Kavanaugh made several references to drinking, claiming membership to the “Beach Week Ralph Club” and “Keg City Club.” He and Judge are pictured together at the beach in a photo in the yearbook.

Judge is a filmmaker and author who has written for the Daily Caller, The Weekly Standard and The Washington Post. He chronicled his recovery from alcoholism in “Wasted: Tales of a Gen-X Drunk,” which described his own blackout drinking and a culture of partying among students at his high school, renamed in the book “Loyola Prep.” Kavanaugh is not mentioned in the book, but a passage about partying at the beach one summer makes glancing reference to a “Bart O’Kavanaugh,” who “puked in someone’s car the other night” and “passed out on his way back from a party.”

Through the White House, Kavanaugh did not respond to a question about whether the name was a pseudonym for him.

Ford said she left the family room to use the bathroom, which was at the top of a narrow stairway. She doesn’t remember whether Kavanaugh and Judge were behind her or already upstairs, but she remembers being pushed into a bedroom and then onto a bed. Rock-and-roll music was playing with the volume turned up high, she said.

She alleges that Kavanaugh — who played football and basketball at Georgetown Prep — held her down with the weight of his body and fumbled with her clothes, seemingly hindered by his intoxication. Judge stood across the room, she said, and both boys were laughing “maniacally.” She said she yelled, hoping that someone downstairs would hear her over the music, and Kavanaugh clapped his hand over her mouth to silence her.

At one point, she said, Judge jumped on top of them, and she tried unsuccessfully to wriggle free. Then Judge jumped on them again, toppling them, and she broke away, she said.

She said she locked herself in the bathroom and listened until she heard the boys “going down the stairs, hitting the walls.” She said that after five or ten minutes, she unlocked the door and made her way through the living room and outside. She isn’t sure how she got home.

Ford said she has not spoken with Kavanaugh since that night. And she told no one at the time what had happened to her. She was terrified, she said, that she would be in trouble if her parents realized she had been at a party where teenagers were drinking, and she worried they might figure it out even if she did not tell them.

“My biggest fear was, do I look like someone just attacked me?” she said. She said she recalled thinking: “I’m not ever telling anyone this. This is nothing, it didn’t happen, and he didn’t rape me.”

Years later, after going through psychotherapy, Ford said, she came to understand the incident as a trauma with lasting impact on her life.

“I think it derailed me substantially for four or five years,” she said. She said she struggled academically and socially and was unable to have healthy relationships with men. “I was very ill-equipped to forge those kinds of relationships.”

She also said she believes that in the longer term, it contributed to anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms with which she has struggled.

She married her husband in 2002. Early in their relationship, she told him she had been a victim of physical abuse, he said. A decade later, he learned the details of that alleged abuse when the therapist asked her to tell the story, he said.

He said he expects that some people, upon hearing his wife’s account, will believe that Kavanaugh’s high school behavior has no bearing upon his fitness for the nation’s high court. He disagrees.

“I think you look to judges to be the arbiters of right and wrong,” Russell Ford said. “If they don’t have a moral code of their own to determine right from wrong, then that’s a problem. So I think it’s relevant. Supreme Court nominees should be held to a higher standard.”

Staff writers Beth Reinhard and Seung Min Kim and researchers Alice Crites and Julie Tate contributed to this story

[jbuck919]

Two words: Clarence Thomas.

[jserraglio]

Two words: Clarence Thomas.

Just one word: KIDNAPPING?
Two more: Attempted Rape?
Three more: Lying to Congress?
Four more: Lying to the FBI?
Five more: I herewith withdraw my nomination.
Six more: Why wasn't this stiff properly vetted?

[lennygoran]

Two words: Clarence Thomas.

Two more: Attempted Rape?
Three more: Lying to Congress?
Four more: Lying to the FBI?
Five more: I herewith withdraw my nomination.
Six more: Why wasn't this stiff properly vetted?

See I told you-when I travel in Aug bad things happen to people like Nixon and trump! Len

[jserraglio]

Barring complete exoneration, Kavanaugh is tainted. By comparison, Justice Thomas looks like a mischief maker who just needed his mouth washed out.

[lennygoran]

Barring complete exoneration, Kavanaugh is tainted. By comparison, Justice Thomas looks like a mischief maker who needed his mouth washed out.

Kavanaugh LOCK HIM UP! Or has the stateute of limitations run out? Len from Lisbon

[jserraglio]

Unfortunately for BK, I believe that the state of Maryland has no such statute of limitations on sex offenses.

[lennygoran]

Unfortunate for him but fortunate for LG! Len

[jserraglio]

A 1998 memo written by Brett Kavanaugh proposed a series of tough, sexually explicit questions for President Bill Clinton to answer about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, shedding new light on the Supreme Court nominee’s moralistic outlook . . . https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/ ... story.html

[lennygoran]

It would make sense that Trump would require his nominee to be a sexual harrasser-this is a topic trump is well equipped to judge the credentials of! Len

[david johnson]

If Pelosi is involved, it's ALL malarkey.

[jserraglio]

If Pelosi is involved, it's ALL malarkey.

Where is Hillary to shoulder the blame when we needher?

[david johnson]

Hil? Her, too. The further left or right the tale comes from, the less true it is.

[jserraglio]

The Senate confirms, not the House. But, all praise to the gods and our ancestors, Nancy Pelosi is destined once again to become Speaker of the House. And Mike Pence soon thereafter the next President of the United States. A marriage made in heaven between the Left and the Right.

[jbuck919]

Unfortunately for BK, I believe that the state of Maryland has no such statute of limitations on sex offenses.

Having lived in Maryland for 25 years, I assure you that it does. There is, however, no limit on the time to present a civil suit, which explains the problem the Catholic Church has now been having for years. No one is talking about prosecuting Kavanaugh for a crime committed when he was a teenager. Nor is there a civil suit in sight. This lady is speaking up strictly from a still traumatizing memory and the desire to keep out of the Supreme Court someone who has no respect for equal rights. It won't work, because she can't prove a darned thing, but one must admire her courage.

[lennygoran]

How do you think Trump will go-republicans still hold enough votes to keep Trump in? Len

[jserraglio]

Unfortunately for BK, I believe that the state of Maryland has no such statute of limitations on sex offenses.

Having lived in Maryland for 25 years, I assure you that it does.

Yes, but thought I'd verify just in case. I'm sure you know Doveryai, no proveryai is old Russian proverb, made famous by Ronald Reagan.

https://lawandcrime.com/legal-analysis/ ... l-charges/ Maryland does not have statutes of limitations for most crimes, including the ones that could be involved here.

And ...

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/if ... ges-maybe/ Could there still be criminal liability in store for President Donald Trump‘s second high court nominee?

If the allegations against him are true, that’s absolutely possible. In fact, a criminal investigation might even be considered plausible at this point under certain circumstances. That’s because the State of Maryland has no statute of limitations for felony sexual assault charges.

The on-point law here is contained in the Maryland Code of Criminal Law at sections 3-303 through 3-312. Now that’s an awful lot of statutory legalese to digest and far too much of a textual task for one law explainer. Suffice to say, the Old Line State has an expansive array of sex crimes for any potential prosecutor to choose from–many of which entail felony criminal liability.

To help sort through Maryland’s myriad sex crimes and how they’re typically applied in cases which might mirror Kavanaugh’s potential liability here, Law&Crime spoke with Randolph Rice, a Maryland criminal defense attorney who specializes in sexual assault charges on behalf of both defendants and the accused.

“Typically, when they charge these types of cases, they’ll charge them based on the severity of the attack. Or possibly the age of the victim. It really is based on the facts of the allegations and that can dictate exactly what the prosecutor’s office decides to go with,” Rice said.

“If they’re a felony there’s no statute of limitations–those can be charged at any time. You see cold cases that are 10, 20 30 years old that individuals are occasionally charged with. A victim gets older. The #MeToo movement has given a lot of these victims the strength to come forward.” Rice said.

There’s also one additional area where Kavanaugh might find himself liable. As Law&Crime’s Ronn Blitzer noted in an op-ed just after the story broke, Supreme Court nominees are thoroughly grilled by the FBI. Said grilling may have entailed questions about criminal activity or allegations. And if Kavanaugh lied to the FBI about that, well, all bets are probably off here. That said, it’s more or less impossible to know exactly which questions Kavanaugh was asked by federal investigators–or how Kavanaugh would have responded if asked about such issues.

...As out there as it sounds, Brett Kavanaugh could be looking at having to defend himself against criminal sexual assault or rape charges.

[lennygoran]

Cavanaugh was with a friend-has the friend been used? Len from lisbon ap

[Modernistfan]

Frankly, this doesn't surprise me one bit. This behavior is far from uncommon among boys of Kavanaugh's socioeconomic class and background, particularly if they are in prep school and especially if they are athletes. When I heard this story, I would have been willing to bet $100 that he had been an athlete in prep school (of course, he was). The unfortunate reality is that boys of this class and background always seem to get the benefit of the doubt that "boys will be boys," and get off the hook for all sorts of offenses: drug use, underage alcohol use, reckless driving, sexual assault, academic cheating, and many others, whereas less affluent boys from public schools, even if white, not to mention boys of color, even if affluent or in prep schools, will be severely punished. If he doesn't have the decency to withdraw, which he probably won't, they need to start the vetting and investigation from square one, and had better check carefully regarding his time at the major law firm Kirkland & Ellis. Were there any incidents with secretaries, paralegals, summer associates, or junior associates? His confirmation would not only damage the reputation of the Supreme Court, which can ill afford that at this constitutionally sensitive juncture, but also would damage the collegiality of the Court itself, which has three woman justices, not to mention law clerks and other employees who might feel threatened or uneasy. This is a consequence of the kind of appointments that Trump, like most recent Republicans, make to the bench; white, Christian men of affluent backgrounds who grew up in a bubble and remained in that bubble all their life: prep school, Ivy League, a top-ranked Ivy League law school, a large nationally-ranked law firm, and so on. Yes, people do change (I am reminded of former Justice Hugo Black, who was briefly a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but, on the Court, was one of the strongest possible defenders imaginable of civil rights and civil liberties), but there is nothing to make me suggest that Kavanaugh would or will ever look outside that bubble.
Yes, I believe Ms. Ford, who really has nothing to gain for herself at this point by the disclosure of this incident.

[lennygoran]

Your message makes great sense to me-thanks! Len

[jserraglio]

BK's school pal, ironically surnamed Judge, at first stated he had no recollection of the incident, then revised that to an flat denial, corroborating what the other "Judge" had said. Tonite Judge apparently re-stated he has no recollection of the incident and that he will not testify.

So it's two males on one female, just as Ms. Blasey, who is now receiving death threats, alleges about the sexual-imposition and false imprisonment attacks that she claims occurred when she was 15 years old.

Mr. Judge has written a personal history of his alcohol abuse (Wasted: Tales of a Gen-X Drunk) which alludes to a high-school classmate "Bart O'Kavanaugh" who got dead drunk at a summer party and puked in a car. He refused comment when asked if Bart was Brett.

[jbuck919]

Unfortunately for BK, I believe that the state of Maryland has no such statute of limitations on sex offenses.

Having lived in Maryland for 25 years, I assure you that it does.

Yes, but thought I'd verify just in case. I'm sure you know Doveryai, no proveryai is old Russian proverb, made famous by Ronald Reagan.

https://lawandcrime.com/legal-analysis/ ... l-charges/ Maryland does not have statutes of limitations for most crimes, including the ones that could be involved here.

And ...

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/if ... ges-maybe/ Could there still be criminal liability in store for President Donald Trump‘s second high court nominee?

If the allegations against him are true, that’s absolutely possible. In fact, a criminal investigation might even be considered plausible at this point under certain circumstances. That’s because the State of Maryland has no statute of limitations for felony sexual assault charges.

The on-point law here is contained in the Maryland Code of Criminal Law at sections 3-303 through 3-312. Now that’s an awful lot of statutory legalese to digest and far too much of a textual task for one law explainer. Suffice to say, the Old Line State has an expansive array of sex crimes for any potential prosecutor to choose from–many of which entail felony criminal liability.

To help sort through Maryland’s myriad sex crimes and how they’re typically applied in cases which might mirror Kavanaugh’s potential liability here, Law&Crime spoke with Randolph Rice, a Maryland criminal defense attorney who specializes in sexual assault charges on behalf of both defendants and the accused.

“Typically, when they charge these types of cases, they’ll charge them based on the severity of the attack. Or possibly the age of the victim. It really is based on the facts of the allegations and that can dictate exactly what the prosecutor’s office decides to go with,” Rice said.

“If they’re a felony there’s no statute of limitations–those can be charged at any time. You see cold cases that are 10, 20 30 years old that individuals are occasionally charged with. A victim gets older. The #MeToo movement has given a lot of these victims the strength to come forward.” Rice said.

There’s also one additional area where Kavanaugh might find himself liable. As Law&Crime’s Ronn Blitzer noted in an op-ed just after the story broke, Supreme Court nominees are thoroughly grilled by the FBI. Said grilling may have entailed questions about criminal activity or allegations. And if Kavanaugh lied to the FBI about that, well, all bets are probably off here. That said, it’s more or less impossible to know exactly which questions Kavanaugh was asked by federal investigators–or how Kavanaugh would have responded if asked about such issues.

...As out there as it sounds, Brett Kavanaugh could be looking at having to defend himself against criminal sexual assault or rape charges.

Going off-topic somewhat, there are two sides to the sex crime sword. The incredible complications you detail are not unique to Maryland. The US is a country obsessed with this topic. Obvious rape is always one of the most serious crimes, but there are men in prison who were 20 and had consensual sex with a girl who was 15 (16 in New York, where the age of consent is a ridiculous 17). Often it is the mother and not the child who complains, and the prosecution is invariably ruthless. I am only beginning with the possibilities. Such situations would simply be overlooked in a country less puritanical than the US, where sometimes cold-blooded murderers go off scot-free.

[lennygoran]

Now blasey ford wants the fbi to investigate before she testifies with congress-the republicans may oppose this-this turn of events worries me. Collins and Flake better come through. Len

[jserraglio]

there are men in prison who were 20 and had consensual sex with a girl who was 15 (16 in New York, where the age of consent is a ridiculous 17).

None of whom, of course, have ever been nominated to the Supreme Court. If the allegations against BK are true, their so-called crimes would be far less offensive than what the good Judge has been accused of.

If Ms Blasey's story is to be believed, and we may now never know one way or the other, two intoxicated boys held her captive and then tried to rape her. Those are violent crimes, not simply violations of dubious puritanical mores regarding minor girls having willing sex with older boys.

Of the six certifiably adult males currently slated to be sitting on the Court come this October, 1/3 have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct. That big number brings to mind the sexual predation in the prisons from whose inmates these justices hear appeals. If they aren't already doing so, RBG and the other two female justices may need to strap Mace beneath their judicial robes.

Puritanical? Maybe. I prefer honest puritanism to the priggish condescension emanating this week from the lips of Ken Starr, Orrin Hatch and the POTUS predator incarnate.

[jbuck919]

For the very reason you cited, Kavanaugh is not going to be denied confirmation no matter what his past may have been. It is simply too important to the Republicans to have someone like him on the Supreme Court, and after he is confirmed there will be nothing anyone can do about it. And on the extremely outside chance that he is not confirmed, the next nominee will be no better.

[jserraglio]

the next nominee will be no better.

I think that even the GOP, bad as they are, can do better than a man who as a lawyer back in the 1990s exhibited prurient interest in Bill Clinton, and today, as a judge named to the High Court, has to deny that in his youth he was a drunk, a kidnapper and a wannabe rapist.

How about a woman of the far right, such as Amy Coney Barrett? Then at least RGB, SMS and EK could feel secure in their chambers.

[jbuck919]

the next nominee will be no better.

I think that even the GOP, bad as they are, can do better than a man who as a lawyer back in the 1990s exhibited prurient interest in Bill Clinton, and today, as a judge named to the High Court, has to deny that in his youth he was a drunk, a kidnapper and a wannabe rapist.

How about a woman of the far right, such as Amy Coney Barrett? Then at least RGB, SMS and EK could feel secure in their chambers.

That is an incredibly sexist reply. A woman of the far right can be worse than a man of the far right. In fact, some of them go out of their way as a matter of what they consider sexual equality to prove that they can be. RBG cannot last much longer, and my exact classmate Sonia Sotomayor must be beside herself wondering how decency will prevail on the court under any Trump nominee.

[jserraglio]

That is an incredibly sexist reply.

Its tone was ironic.

[Modernistfan]

​A story has just surfaced that a professor at Yale Law School had advised female students to dress in a certain way to exhibit a "model-like femininity" if they wanted to clerk for Kavanaugh. This does not surprise me in the least; when I have gone to meetings, I have noticed that most female associates with the major law firms (such as Kavanaugh's former firm, Kirkland & Ellis) looked like they just stepped off the pages of Vogue.
Whether Kavanaugh is confirmed, and I sincerely hope that he is not, I hope that the legal profession, and especially the large, prestigious law firms such as Kirkland & Ellis, who play a huge role in the legal profession and exert an outsized influence, steps back and takes a good hard look at itself. As the profession has become more and more image-conscious over the last 25 years or so, the hiring and promotion of attorneys has become far more stereotyped and attorneys, at least in these very large firms, had better conform to those stereotypes. The law is a difficult enough profession without these pressures. Although women are probably the primary victims of these stereotypes, they are not the only ones. The old motto used to be: "Dress British, think Yiddish." Now, at least in the large firms, the motto would appear to be: "Dress British, think goyish [non-Jewish] even if you happen to be Jewish." The kind of wide-ranging intellectual curiosity exhibited by such Jewish exemplars of the legal profession as former Supreme Court Justices Brandeis, Frankfurter, and Cardozo and current Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not really welcome in these firms. If you are a Jewish guy and hope to get into these firms, it would definitely help to have been some sort of an athlete and belonged to a Jewish fraternity such as Alpha Epsilon Pi; a real scholarly reputation is seen as a negative. As another example, these firms will virtually never hire anyone with a visible physical handicap such as using a wheelchair, no matter how qualified such a person is. These firms do hire just enough women and ethnic minorities to avoid triggering a probe by the EEOC, which, given the proclivities of the current administration, will not likely happen in any event.
I am hoping that this becomes a teachable moment for the legal profession, but I am not holding my breath.

[jserraglio]

Couldn't agree more. And some of the same strictures, but to a much lesser degree, apply to men who must dress to look the part or have their bona fides questioned.

Hillary, a remarkable woman in my view, has led an on-again off-again lifelong silent protest against such sartorial snobbery. So has Michelle, but more consistently. On the male side of the ledger is Steve Bannon's admirable scruffiness.

[Modernistfan]

Agreed, but this has to do with a number of other things other than dress. It is interesting to note that, on the current Supreme Court, none of the liberal-leaning justices, Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor (three Jews and one Latina), ever worked for any of the major national large law firms.

[jserraglio]

One of the joys of my grad school experience in the NE (after growing up in a sheltered midwest conclave) was coming into contact with so many brilliant Jewish classmates, friends studying in other fields, undergrads and the occasional, very occasional in them days, prof.

[jbuck919]

One of the joys of my grad school experience in the NE (I grew up in a sheltered Ohio conclave) was coming into contact with so many brilliant Jewish classmates, friends in other fields, undergrads and the occasional, very occasional in them days, prof.

We are not that far apart in age, and I had a lot of Jewish professors. I only had one Jewish high school classmate, though, with whom I am still friends. I would not call my place of upbringing sheltered, but I would call it provincial.

[jserraglio]

... and the even rarer tenured woman, even though in both the Midwest and the East brilliant women populated the classes I took, plus the many more I met in unrelated fields.