Nearly one year after the tumultuous confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has evaded all attempts by the Left to smear his good name. Now a judicial conduct panel has dismissed 83 ethics complaint against the freshman justice, arguing it has no authority over the Supreme Court.
“The complaints arose in part from Kavanaugh’s conduct at his contentious confirmation hearing that included an accusation of sexual assault while a teenager as well as his testimony at prior hearings,” reports CNN. “The ruling affirms a finding by 10th Circuit judicial council that dismissed the complaints in December.”
In the fall of last year, Palo Alto professor Christine Blasey Ford nearly torpedoed Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court when she testified that he sexually assaulted her at a high school pool party in the early-’80s. Not a single witness she identified corroborated her account, including her close friend, who said she never even met Kavanaugh in a sworn statement. Furthermore, Christine Blasey Ford could not remember what house the party was held at, how she got to the party, and (most importantly) how she got home from the party when she stormed out of the house after allegedly being assaulted.
When defending his good name, Kavanaugh testified before Senate Judiciary Committee that he had been subjected to a political hit job that the Democrats orchestrated in retaliation for the 2016 election.
“This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons, and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups,” Kavanaugh said at his hearing.
“This is a circus. The consequences will extend long past my nomination. The consequences will be with us for decades,” he continued. “I will not be intimidated by withdrawing from this process. Your coordinated and well-funded effort to destroy my good name and destroy my family will not drive me out. You may defeat me in the final vote, but you’ll never get me to quit. Ever.”
The ethics complaints stemmed from his alleged misconduct during the hearings, which his critics characterized as “making inappropriately partisan statements and behaving in a demonstrably hostile manner during the hearings.” This past December, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed those complaints — a decision that has now been affirmed by the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Judicial Conference of the United States — on the grounds that they do not cover “complaints against a judge who has resigned his or her judicial office and thereafter been confirmed as a Justice of the Supreme Court” and that Kavanaugh is not a judge subject to their jurisdiction.
“Our committee, judicial councils, and chief circuit judges all lack statutory authority to review the merits of complaints against an individual no longer covered under the (Judicial Conduct and Disability) Act,” the panel said, according to USA Today. “As a Supreme Court justice, Justice Kavanaugh is not a judge subject to the Act.”