Protesters rally at Supreme Court as sex assault charges force hearing, delay in Kavanaugh nomination vote
Video-Trump/Kavanaugh supporter attempts to shout down rally
On the 17th of September, protesters rallied outside the Supreme Court as the announcement came in that the scheduled Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination would be delayed. Instead of a vote on Thursday, there will now be a public hearing on Monday, the 24th of September to discuss Dr Ford's charge that Kavanaugh tried to rape her.
Two groups of protesters were already at the Supreme Court for back-to-back previously scheduled events, enduring rain bands from the remnants of Hurricane Florence. The first protest was by the Constitutional Accountability Center and the Center for American Progress, and the second rally focussed explicitly on the "Me Too" aspects of the Kavanaugh nomination and very serious charges of sexual assault. Christine Blasey Ford (Mr Kavanaugh's victim) has chosen to step forward and has said she will testify at the Monday, Sep 24 hearing about Brett Kavanaugh's attempt to rape her.
Speaker after speaker at the Sep 17 rally recounted their own experiences and said flatly that they trust that Dr Ford is telling the truth. Speakers also condemned the brutal public shaming and harassment that Anita Hill was subjected to after coming forward back in 1991 with her charges of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas. The GOP chose brush off her report and confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court anyway. She has been harassed ever since by supporters of Thomas and the GOP. Knowing this, Dr Ford has come forward anyway with her charges against Trump's SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Near the end of this back-to-back pair of rallies, a single Trump/Kavanaugh supporter tried to shout down the proceedings, only to himself be shouted down and soon leave in defeat.
At the first protest, many speakers had disabilites or spoke on behalf of family members or friends with medical issues. Kavanaugh of course would gladly bring back the "pre-existing condition" exclusion in health insurance that used to exclude 25% of the US population from getting health insurance if they were not employed by a company providing a group policy. Worse yet, Kavanaugh is well known for his ruling that attempted to prevent a teenage migrant girl from getting an abortion, and even for attempts to deny people with learning disabilities the right to choose for themselves whether to pursue surgical procedures.
One disabled speaker who as a child had already endured too many surgeries cited her own doctor's willingness to respect her wishes when she declined to have eye surgery. If Kavanaugh is part of a Supreme Court ruling that the state makes the medical decisions for learning disabled people, such surgeries in the future could become compulsory. People could even told they must submit to surgical sterilization because they did not score high enough on a racially biased standardized test in school if this is taken to its logical conclusion. This sort of thing happened in Nazi Germany, so the support of Kavanaugh for bringing it back is just yet another example of why Donald Trump is so often compared to Adolf Hitler.
