Ad campaign sample via Demand Justice
Decisions have consequences. That’s a concept lawyers should be well familiar with. So when Consovoy McCarthy, Gibson Dunn, Kasowitz Benson & Torres, Kirkland & Ellis, Sullivan & Cromwell, and WilmerHale decided to be Gold Circle sponsors of a Federalist Society dinner where Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was the keynote speaker, they probably should have expected some people would be pissed. Maybe they didn’t expect a full-out ad campaign, but that’s what they got.
On Monday, the advocacy group Demand Justice announced an ad campaign targeting employees at those firms for the firm’s support of the Kavanaugh event. Demand Justice is holding the line on the normalization of Kavanaugh following the credible accusations of attempted rape made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during his confirmation hearing. As Katie O’Connor, senior counsel at Demand Justice, said:
“The Federalist Society is trying to rehabilitate Brett Kavanaugh – who was credibly accused of sexual assault by multiple women – so he can get to work enriching corporations at the expense of women, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and other vulnerable communities. And, they’re using the veneer of legitimacy granted to them by sponsors to do it. The firms supporting the Federalist Society are choosing profits over survivors. It’s time for people at these firms who really care about ending sexual violence to speak up.”
I know a lot of lawyers on both sides of the political spectrum are eager for a return to the legal norms of a pre-Trump world. When it was fine to support an event featuring Supreme Court justice of any political stripe. But that’s not the world we live in. They can’t undo the erosion of those norms brought on by destruction of blue slips, the appointment of unqualified federal judges, and everything surrounding Merrick Garland’s nomination for the Supreme Court.
The reality is the painful truth that Republicans in the Senate did not care about credible accusations of sexual assault during the Kavanaugh confirmation. But that doesn’t mean everyone can — or should — forget what happened and get back to business as usual.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).