(Photo by Win McNamee /Getty Images)
The normalization of alleged attempted rapist Brett Kavanaugh continues in all the ways these bad people get reintegrated into polite society. Kavanaugh enjoys the support of roughly half of the country who either believe that a childhood calendar exonerates the man of serious charges, or just straight up don’t care about how he treats women. His colleagues, who happen to be justices on the United States Supreme Court, say positive things about him in public as they try to forge a working relationship with a man who can, on a whim, take away the rights of vulnerable people. The press that covers him, with a few notable and heroic exceptions, has largely been made to understand that fighting Kavanaugh makes it harder for them to do their jobs, so accepting him is just much easier.
Kavanaugh should be toxic. In addition to the credible attempted rape allegations, there’s the issue of the 83 ethics complaints filed against him and dismissed because nobody can hold a Supreme Court justice accountable, except through impeachment. There’s the record of lying under oath at confirmation hearings; his closeness with disgraced judge Alex Kozinski; and, oh yeah, he sneeringly promised to use his position as Supreme Court justice to exact revenge against his enemies.
Instead of treating him like the drunk uncle who shouldn’t be left alone with the children at Thanksgiving, the Federalist Society is honoring him at an event tonight at their annual National Lawyer’s Convention. This is classic FedSoc: As long as you are committed to taking away the rights of women and minorities, anything you do in your private life that is hurtful to women or minorities is also okay.
In a reasonable world, we would view Supreme Court justices speaking to partisan organizations as incredibly problematic. The Federalist Society is a partisan, agenda-driven organization which has actively promoted legal arguments designed to upend precedent and crush individual rights. Even if one agrees with Federalist Society teachings, a sitting Supreme Court justice should not be giving them aid and succor by appearing at their national events.
Of course, we’re talking about Brett Kavanaugh here. This is a man who does ex-parte photo ops with people who have current business in front of the Supreme Court. Expecting Kavanaugh to not appear at a FedSoc event is like expecting a dog to not root around in the trash when it spends half of the day licking its butt anyway.
The wrinkle with this appearance is that tonight’s FedSoc event is in part sponsored by Facebook. Sorry, “FACEBOOK.”
Facebook has a long history of supporting Kavanaugh because one of its bigwigs — Joel Kaplan, vice president of global affairs — is reportedly close friends with Kavanaugh. That’s really all it takes. Credible allegations of sexual misconduct, documented history of being untruthful under oath, partisan hackery, and revenge threats against his enemies aside, Kavanaugh has a “buddy” inside Facebook, so of course the company will support Kavanaugh and an organization that thinks the original intent of slavers is the most scared foundation of Constitutional law.
I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that, should Facebook fail in its efforts to hand another election to Donald Trump, the company will be facing a legal reckoning under a Democratic administration. Facebook will likely challenge any new regulations in court. And nearly any court challenge could wind up on the desk of Brett Kavanaugh, speaking for a conservative super-majority.
Demand Justice is trying to launch a protest campaign against Facebook’s support of Kavanaugh, led by employees of Facebook.
“Facebook should not be sponsoring the rehabbing of Brett Kavanaugh’s reputation when Dr. Blasey Ford remains unable to resume a normal life after bravely coming forward last year,” said Katie O’Connor, senior counsel for Demand Justice. “You can claim to respect survivors of sexual assault or you can pay for a celebration of Brett Kavanaugh, but you can’t do both.”
People are trying.
The Federalist Society is the nexus point of a little bubble where the legal vanguard of white supremacist logic gets to mingle and swap notes with fellow culture warriors. These are the people who bring you ethno-nationalist Steven Menashi (who is being confirmed today, by the way). These are the people who bring you the zealotry of Amy Coney Barrett. These are the people who bring you torture defenders like James Ho.
Brett Kavanaugh is the perfect symbol for the entire organization: A white man of unexamined privilege who gets dangerously angry when anybody tries to hold him to account for his past actions. He is the embodiment of everything that is wrong. Of course they are honoring him. His mere existence as a Supreme Court justice is a triumph for every white man who ever thought he could drown out the cries of his victims merely by turning up the music a little louder.
It should be a great night for these people. They’ve won.
But we don’t have to treat their victory, their supremacy, and their smugness as “normal.” It is not normal. I will never treat them as normal. I will never stop fighting these people, even to the point where I’m regarded as the weird one.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.