• WBST 92.1 FMMuncie
  • WBSB 89.5 FMAnderson
  • WBSW 90.9 FMMarion
  • WBSH 91.1 FMHagerstown / New Castle
Indiana Public Radio, a listener-supported service of Ball State University
Listen Live Online. Tap to open audio stream.

38 Ind. Law Professors Join Thousands In Signing Letter Opposing Kavanaugh

By Barbara Brosher, IPB News | Published on in Law, Politics
(Indiana University - Maurer School of Law, Facebook)

More than 1,500 law professors across the country have signed a letter opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, including 38 professors representing all four law schools in Indiana.

The letter, delievered to the U.S. Senate Thursday afternoon, says Kavanaugh does not have the “impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of the land.”

The Senate is expected to vote to close discussion about Kavanaugh on Friday morning. If that vote passes, the final vote would likely take place over the weekend.

The professors signing the letter have “differing views about the other qualifications of Judge Kavanaugh,” and focus on his demeanor during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week in which Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, his accurser, testified.

Read More: Young Says FBI’s Kavanaugh Investigation Shows ‘No Evidence Of Misconduct’

“Judge Kavanaugh exhibited a lack of commitment to judicious inquiry. Instead of being open to the necessary search for accuracy, Judge Kavanaugh was repeatedly aggressive with questioners,” the letter says. “Instead of trying to sort out with reason and care the allegations that were raised, Judge Kavanaugh responded in an intemperate, inflammatory, and partial manner, as he interrupted and, at times, was discourteous to questioners.”

The letter says Kavanaugh’s lack of judicial temperament would disqualify him from serving in any court, “and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land.”

Kavanaugh continues to deny all allegations of sexual misconduct.

Read the complete letter:

Open Letter to the United States Senate from Law Professors Around the Country

Judicial temperament is one of the most important qualities of a judge. As the Congressional Research Service explains, to be a judge requires that an individual have “a personality that is evenhanded, unbiased, impartial, courteous yet firm, and dedicated to a process, not a result.” [1] The concern for judicial temperament dates back to our founding; in Federalist Paper 78, entitled “Judges as Guardians of the Constitution,” Alexander Hamilton expressed the need for “the integrity and moderation of the judiciary.”

We are law professors who teach, research, and write about the judicial institutions of this country. Many of us appear in state and federal court, and our work means that we will continue to do so, including before the United States Supreme Court. We regret that we feel compelled to write to you to provide our views that at the Senate hearings on Thursday, September 27, 2018, the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land.

The question at issue was of course painful for anyone. But Judge Kavanaugh exhibited a lack of commitment to judicious inquiry. Instead of being open to the necessary search for accuracy, Judge Kavanaugh was repeatedly aggressive with questioners. Even in his prepared remarks, Judge Kavanaugh located the hearing as a partisan question, referring to it as “a calculated and orchestrated political hit,” rather than acknowledging the need for the Senate, faced with new information, to try to understand what had transpired. Instead of trying to sort out with reason and care the allegations that were raised, Judge Kavanaugh responded in an intemperate, inflammatory, and partial manner, as he interrupted and, at times, was discourteous to questioners.

As you know, under two statutes governing bias and recusal, judges must step aside if they are at risk of being perceived as or of being unfair. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 144, 455. As this Congress has put it, a judge or justice “shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” 28 USC § 455. These statutes are part of a myriad of legal commitments to the impartiality of the judiciary, which is the cornerstone of the courts.

We have differing views about the other qualifications of Judge Kavanaugh. But we are united, as professors of law and scholars of judicial institutions, in believing that Judge Kavanaugh did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of our land.

Signed, with institutional affiliation listed for identification purposes only,

[See all signatories on the New York Times. See Indiana signatories below, as listed on the New York Times]

[1] See Congressional Research Service, “Supreme Court Appointment Process: President’s Selection of a Nominee,” June 27, 2018, at 12 (available at https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44235.pdf) (citing Miller Center of Public Affairs, Improving the Process of Appointing Federal Judges at 10 (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, May 1996)).

Signatories from law schools in Indiana:

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Cynthia M. Adams, Clinical Professor of Law

Jeffrey O. Cooper, Associate Professor of Law

James D. Dimitri, Clinical Professor of Law

Jennifer A. Drobac, R. Bruce Townsend Professor of Law

John S. Grimes, Professor of Law & Director of the Center for Int’l and Comparative Law

Max Huffman, Professor of Law

Deborah B. McGregor, Clinical Professor of Law

Seema Mohapatra, Associate Professor of Law

Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Gerald L. Bepko Chair in Law

Florence Wagman Roisman, William F. Harvey Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Professor

Nicolas Terry, Professor of Law

Indiana University Maurer School of Law

Daniel H. Cole, Professor of Law and Public & Environmental Affairs

Pamela Foohey, Associate Professor of Law

Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Professor of Law

Charles Geyh, John F. Kimberling Professor of Law

Dawn Johnsen, Walter W. Foskett Professor of Law

Leandra Lederman, William W. Oliver Professor of Tax Law

H. Timothy Lovelace, Jr., Professor of Law

Sophia C. Goodman, Professor of Law

Dr. Jody Lynee Madeira, Professor of Law

Donna M. Nagy, C. Ben Dutton Professor of Law

Christina Ochoa, Professor of Law

Aviva Orenstein, Professor of Law

Jennifer Prusak, Associate Clinical Professor of Law

Victor D. Quintanilla, Professor of Law

Steve Sanders, Associate Professor of Law

John A. Scanlan, Professor Emeritus

Jeffrey Evans Stake, Professor of Law

James Alexander Tanford, Professor Emeritus

Carwina Weng, Clinical Professor of Law

Deborah Widiss, Professor of Law

Indiana University Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies

Shruti Rana, Professor of International Law Practice

Notre Dame Law School

Mark P. McKenna, John P Murphy Foundation Professor of Law

Christine Venter, Teaching Professor

Valparaiso University School of Law

Laura Dooley, Professor of Law

Edward McGlynn Gaffney, Jr., Professor of Law Emeritus

Bethany R. Lesniewski, Associate Professor of Law

Susan P. Stuart, Professor Emerita of Law