Friday, September 21, 2018

Dershowitz: Why Should We Automatically Believe Kavanaugh's Accuser? 

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Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz made the rounds on Fox News this week, saying that he rejects the idea that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, should be automatically believed just because she is a women - and that people who say "I believe her" are basing that opinion on virtually no evidence. 

"The most disturbing thing is these people who are on television, some people I know and respect, [who say] 'I believe her,'" said Dershowitz, adding "You never met her. You don't know anything about her. Are women born with a special gene for telling the truth, and men with a special gene for lying?

"I don't believe her. I don't believe him," he added. "I have an open mind, I want to hear both sides of the story and make a determination."

Dershowitz warned against the creation of multiple standards of justice in America, and said that would lead to a politicization of the justice system. He said in this case, the decision to confirm or not confirm Kavanaugh should be based on evidence, "not genetic belief in the inferiority or superiority of one gender." -Washington Examiner

On Thursday, Dershowitz told Fox: "Look, nobody should be referring to her as a victim or him as a perpetrator until we hear from both of them, under oath, subject to cross-examination. There is nothing more essential to American justice than the opportunity to cross-examine your accuser - to confront your accuser, it's in the Constitution. Essentially it goes back to Magna Carta. 

The idea that we're calling somebody a perpetrator and somebody else a victim, based simply on he-said / she-said, is just wrong and it's un-American."

Ford's supporters say they find her story that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 "credible," while Kavanaugh has denied it ever happened - agreeing to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the accusation. Ford said that she is willing to testify next week, however she laid out a series of conditions; not on Monday, only if her "safety is guaranteed, and only if Kavanaugh goes first.



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