Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Unbelievable.  It’s been reported by several news sources, and confirmed by the school (in other words, corroborated), that one day last week, several (but not all) Yale Law School (repeat, law school) professors cancelled their classes so that students who chose to, either at the school or in D.C., could protest against the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Those classes were cancelled and student protests occurred, mind you, after the Senate Judicial Committee’s formal hearing process had been completed, with a vote imminent, and around the time those eleventh-hour uncorroborated, unproven accusations of a sexual nature, against the Judge, by obvious per-planning, had surfaced.

So, forget presumption of innocence, due process, and the rule of law.  Those Yale law students (repeat, law students), who chose to protest, had pre-ruled the Judge guilty, regardless.  Guilty because he was a white male, or because he had partied in high school and/or college (like most of us, male or female), or because he would always rule to harm women (despite the fact that he and his wife, a woman, were raising two young daughters (future women), or because of climate change, North Korea, or whatever, since in this absence of reason, a defendable reason really didn’t matter.  So protest, many of those law students did, well before those “accusations” were proven (i.e., guilty, irrespective of actual innocence), which to date, none of them have been!

Looking forward a few years, you might want to exercise care before engaging one of these young, future Yale Law School-degreed lawyers (mention Kavanaugh), not all of them, mind you, but clearly some, particularly if you are, oh, the horror of it, a Constitutional conservative.  Use caution, as unsubstantiated accusations made by others “may, and can, be held against you.” And should you, your son or your daughter be considering law schools, if truth, facts (not feelings), and the proud American tradition of innocent until proven guilty are important to you, you may want to take a pass on this one, where, for an unknown number of their current students, rule of crowd appears to top rule of law.

And the irony of this?  Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a Yale Law School graduate (Class of 1990)!  It’s just possible this might slow down his alumni donations.