Demanding Kavanaugh impeachment, law students launch nationwide strike against illegitimate justice

"We cannot accept a system that empowers a man who repeatedly lied under oath and a judiciary review process that only performs a sham of an investigation into his misconduct."

By
Jessica Corbett
-
104698
SOURCECommon Dreams
Image Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

“We are in the middle of a national emergency,” declared an open letter as students of at least a dozen U.S. law schools walked out of class on Wednesday afternoon to launch a three-day strike calling for the impeachment of recently confirmed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“We cannot accept a system that empowers a man who repeatedly lied under oath and a judiciary review process that only performs a sham of an investigation into his misconduct,” the letter continues, referencing allegations of perjury and sexual assault that have been levied against the newest member of the nation’s highest court, and the “charade” of an FBI investigation conducted to address the assault claims, which Kavanaugh has denied.

“We do not recognize Kavanaugh as a legitimate member of the United States Supreme Court,” the letter asserts, demanding that “anyone seeking to be elected to Congress in November commits to impeaching Kavanaugh to protect any semblance of rule of law and the people of our communities.”

Organized in coordination with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), an advocacy group, the law student strike follows months of nationwide protests against Kavanaugh. His record from serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for 12 years made him deeply unpopular from the moment President Donald Trump announced his nomination in July, which elicited immediate warnings about his positions on corporate malfeasance and environmental regulations as well as labor, LGBTQ, immigrant, and reproductive rights.

Although resistance to Kavanaugh’s nomination dramatically intensified during the confirmation process as multiple came forward to accuse him of sex misconduct, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and nearly all Senate Republicans forced through Kavanaugh’s confirmation on Saturday with the narrowest vote on a Supreme Court nominee in more than a century, and Kavanaugh joined his eight Supreme Court colleagues on the bench Tuesday morning. His ascension to the high court has not quelled opposition.

Law students have organized events for the strike, according to NLG, at Brooklyn Law School, Cardozo Law School, Duke Law School, Lewis & Clark Law School, New York University Law, Rutgers Law School, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, U.C. Hastings College of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law, University of Southern California School of Law, the Chicago-Kent College of Law, and University of Miami School of Law.

Additionally, students on non-law campuses, including Georgia Tech and the Silberman School of Social Work, have organized events for the strike and at least 60 organizations, from local lawyers guilds to various chapters of Indivisible, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have endorsed it.

Following the walkout on Wednesday, students are hosting events such as a letter-writing session at Brooklyn Law School on Thursday where students wrote messages to elected officials to demand that they move to impeach Kavanaugh.

 

 

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