"Justice on Trial" by Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino
Above: "Justice on Trial" - Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino. 350 pages.
The authors warn that the next confirmation fight involving a Trump nominee is likely to be bloodier than this one.
I completed reading this book today.
This book, a number one national best seller, bills itself as the definitive account of the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States.
"Justice on Trial" is a soup to nuts account of the Kavanaugh confirmation. It starts with Justice Kennedy "slipping through the back door" to give President Trump his resignation letter and ends with the final approval of Brett Kavanaugh as Supreme Court justice.
The authors cite access to over one hundred key players, including the president and senators participating in the confirmation hearings.
The key message of the book is how dysfunctional judicial confirmation hearings have become.
In the process of vetting Judge Kavanaugh, a highly respected judge on the DC Court of Appeals, unverified, thirty plus year old, claims of sexual assault were used in an attempt to disqualify him from joining the Supreme Court.
There are stories of witness manipulation. A close high school friend of Kavanaugh's accuser, Cristine Blasey Ford, was pressured to admit to witnessing the alleged sexual assault. Despite the attempt at coercion, the friend denied having seen the alleged event. She (the friend) was against Kavanaugh's appointment, believed that her friend Christine Blasey Ford experienced "something," but she stood fast in affirming that she never witnessed anything along the lines of Ford's accusation. For her unwillingness to be coerced into advancing the sexual assault narrative to destroy Kavanaugh, "the friend" received hate mail from many whom she thought were close. Other "friends" broke off contact with her after she refused to "play ball." In the end, it was only Ford herself who could stand by the thirty year old, murky and ambiguously recalled allegation she made.
Kavanaugh responded with an impassioned defense of his life and judicial career. Judge Kavanaugh was able, notwithstanding his predicted demise by media pundits, to prevail in the Senate confirmation vote by a narrow margin. It is noteworthy that President Trump stood strongly behind his nominee as the circus-like nomination process advanced.
The Supreme Court has become the focal point for many of the nation's most vexing disputes. For many, the stakes are high enough to pull out all the stops...delay... prevarication...etc. to scuttle a nomination. How this "hit job" was performed in the Kavanaugh nomination is exposed in painstaking detail. "Justice on Trial" will erase any doubts a sentient reader might have about the dysfunctionality of Washington ways, the corrupt judicial confirmation process, and the lack of personal integrity of many of our elected leaders.
The authors warn that the next confirmation fight involving a Trump nominee is likely to be bloodier than this one.
The book reads like a page turning thriller novel. Very well written and researched. Recommend. Oh... and hunker down.
Full disclosure: Mollie Hemingway's father-in-law participates on our email forum group. :-)