Ethics Complaint Over Kavanaugh’s ‘Partisan’ Testimony Falls Under Jurisdiction of… Merrick Garland
As the investigation of Brett Kavanaugh‘s alleged sexual misconduct continue, a number of ethical questions have come up due to his most recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Kavanaugh drew a lot of attention last week with his tirade accusing his political opponents of using the sexual misconduct allegations against himself as a “calculated and orchestrated” plot to torpedo his Supreme Court chances.
Buzzfeed reports that due to the hyper-partisan nature of Kavanaugh’s statements, Democrats have filed at least two ethical complaints against him in the DC Circuit Court, saying he disqualified himself from reviewing politically-sensitive cases.
These complaints currently fall under the jurisdiction of Merrick Garland, the former SCOTUS nominee who was denied a Senate confirmation hearing during Barack Obama‘s presidency. So far it isn’t clear whether Garland has asked Chief Justice John Roberts to transfer complaints against Kavanaugh to him.
While the first ethics complaint focuses on the transparency issues about Kavanaugh’s service in the George W. Bush administration, the second complaint picked up by Buzzfeed accuses him of “engaging in a public and partisan campaign of lies to cover-up and conceal sexual misconduct and crimes he committed in the past.”
The charge argues that Kavanaugh lied in his written statements to the senate, and it also accuses him of committing a “partisan” act when he gave an interview to Fox News in order to defend himself from his misconduct allegations.
The precise consequences are unknown in terms of what could happen if Kavanaugh is disqualified on political bias grounds, especially since there isn’t any code of conduct or review framework to evaluate the ethics of SCOTUS justices.
Nonetheless, Kavanaugh’s attacks against liberals and various Democrats raise numerous questions about cases where he might need to recuse himself in the future if confirmed to the bench.
[Image via screengrab]
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