Standard of Proof in Kavanaugh Nomination

Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee have argued that evidence of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's misconduct is uncorroborated and fails to meet the test of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. As a prosecutor, many of the cases I tried involved only a single eyewitness, the victim. Even in the absence of other corroborating evidence, if the jury found that witness credible and accepted the accuracy of her identification of a perpetrator, the verdict was guilty even applying the high bar of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Judge Kavanaugh's bid to become a Justice of the Supreme Court must be gauged by his fitness to serve, a far lesser standard than the one applied in criminal trials. If Dr.Ford is believed, as the senators profess, and her testimony is, indeed, persuasive and credible, the Senate must reject Brett Kavanaugh. That conclusion is buttressed by the intemperate, blatantly partisan and unjudicial tenor of his response.