Under growing pressure from senators, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee will call Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who has recently accused him of sexual assault before the committee on Monday. These public hearings will come only weeks before the midterm election.
As the hearing was set, a Republican senator from Iowa, Charles E. Grassley backed down from a committee vote on Kavenaugh’s nomination, pushing a confirmation recently seen as inevitable, into uncertainty.
Monday’s hearing sets up what could be an explosive public shutdown. The events of this year’s election echoes a similar situation in 1991, where Anita Hill accused the future Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, riveting the nation and creating a stream of women who ran and were appointed to public office. This episode will play out against the background of the #MeToo movement. Long story short, times have changed, and hopefully the results of these hearings will echo that.
