As the controversy surrounding Brett Kavanaugh unfolds, a Boston University law professor is watching closely.
Jack Beermann knows Kavanaugh professionally, having spoken at conferences with him over the years.
"We travel in the same circles because we are both interested in administrative law," Beermann said.
So Beermann was not surprised after the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, when President Donald Trump tapped Kavanaugh as his Supreme Court nominee.
"He is the absolute darling of the conservative legal movement," Beermann said.
Nothing about the confirmation hearing surprised Beermann either. He knew there would be controversy — he says there always is.
"And they were going to try to pressure him into saying something more definitive about cases like Roe v. Wade, which no nominees ever will answer those questions," Beermann added.
U.S. & World
What does surprise Beermann are the allegations from California professor Christine Blazy Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her more than 30 years ago, when she was 15 and he was 17.
"I think that the Senate Judiciary committee is doing the right thing by pausing the process to hear the accuser and Judge Kavanaugh, under oath, discuss what allegedly happened," he said.
Beermann does not think the allegations are automatically disqualifying.
"It's not a shock that teenage boys under the influence of alcohol might do something that is going to be viewed as really inappropriate," he said. "But we don't know what happened."
Much like the Anita Hill hearings of 1991, Beermann says Kavanaugh's confirmation process will come down to who people believe.
