Harvard Law School Lets Kavanaugh Take The Gentleman's Way Out

If there's a way Harvard can allow a white man to save face, they're going to take it.

During his testimony before Congress, Brett Kavanaugh complained that he may not be allowed to teach law classes again. Weird what a few credible allegations of sexual assault will do to one’s lecturing opportunities.

Kavanaugh had been teaching a class at Harvard Law School in the January term. Harvard Law operates on a trimester system, squeezing in a stunted “Winter” term for January, between Fall and Spring semesters. Students typically take one course, a small scale seminar or the like, after the holidays.

It allows the school to give a teaching opportunity to somebody like a sitting D.C. Circuit judge. Kavanaugh has been teaching at HLS for about ten years, and was slated to lecture a class again this January, titled “The Supreme Court Since 2005.” 2005 is when Roberts was installed as Chief Justice, for those playing along at home.

Students have been protesting Kavanaugh’s position since he was accused of sexual assault by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. But the administration refused to act. Or, in the alternative, the administration did act by sticking its fingers in their ears and refusing to listen to student concerns about have an alleged attempted rapist moonlight as a molder of young minds.

If confirmed, Kavanaugh would have likely said that his new duties on the Supreme Court prevented him from teaching his class. As his confirmation is still up in the air, Kavanaugh finally pulled the cord himself on the January term class. From the Harvard Crimson:

“Today, Judge Kavanaugh indicated that he can no longer commit to teaching his course in January Term 2019, so the course will not be offered,” Associate Dean and Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs Catherine Claypoole wrote in the email, which she sent on behalf of the Law School’s Curriculum Committee.

This is the kind of face-saving maneuver that is often afforded white men, and that we now know has been afforded Brett Kavanaugh all his life. Oh, he didn’t perjure himself, again and again and again before Congress, he gave “imprecise” testimony. He didn’t “pass out” from drinking, he “went to sleep.” He was “shocked” by the Alex Kozinski allegations, not a knowing enabler of that harassment. Kavanaugh got into Yale with “no connections,” don’t ya know, it didn’t matter at all that his grandfather went to Yale too.

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When the history of the Kavanaugh confirmation is written, assuming histories are allowed to be written while Kavanaugh is on the Court, throwing ice at people he doesn’t like, elite institutions will have a lot to answer for. Yale has done the heavy lifting of protecting this man, but Harvard Law has given him an academic job for a decade and helped to burnish his reputation among other elite lawyers.

Many of those elites are silent now, hoping you’ll forget that they vouched for the character of an alleged sexual assaulter and confirmed liar. But those elites are largely responsible for creating a cocoon of presumed competence around the man, pushing credible allegations against him and legitimate lines of inquiry into his character to the back burner before Dr. Blasey Ford had the courage to tell her story.

Elites are still covering for him now. The students at Harvard Law School have asked for an investigation into Kavanaugh’s behavior while at Harvard. But Law Dean John Manning has been silent and not agreed to conduct such an inquiry.

Manning has been silent throughout the Kavanaugh controversy, and was surely part of the cabal that allowed Kavanaugh to take this face-saving exit from HLS.

There has been a letter writing campaign, led by students, criticizing Manning’s silence.

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“The administration’s silence diminishes students’ trust that HLS will hold its faculty accountable for wrongdoing,” one letter read.

It is worth noting that Dean Manning is a former law clerk of Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia, so he knows something about embattled conservative nominees. Manning, the best available white guy, ascended to his position despite public pressure for the law school to look at more diverse candidates.

If I were a current HLS student, I wouldn’t hold my breath expecting Manning to take seriously their concerns about lecturers who have been credibly accused of sexual assault. At least not if those lecturers are partisans used to the protection of other elites.

Even though Kavanaugh went to Yale Law School, his old boys network currency works just as well at Harvard Law.

Kavanaugh Will Not Return to Teach at Harvard Law School [Harvard Crimson]


Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.