A judge lauded by conservatives gets picked by the president to become the next Supreme Court justice. As he travels the path to Senate confirmation, he unexpectedly confronts graphic allegations of sexual misconduct put forth by a respected female academic. The process is thrown into an uproar—as is the nation.
Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford in 2018? Or Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill in 1991?
On Monday, once again, a woman will go before members of the U.S. Senate to accuse a SCOTUS nominee of wrongdoing.
And it’s hard to ignore that the cases have similarities even though they are playing out nearly 30 years apart.
First a refresher: Republican President George H.W. Bush made Thomas a SCOTUS nominee in July 1991 after Justice Thurgood Marshall announced his retirement. Similarly, Republican President Donald Trump this July nominated Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Anita Hill stepped forward to testify and accuse Thomas of a pattern of harassment when they worked together that included graphic porn references and other inappropriate behavior. At the time, Hill was a law professor; the head of the all-white-male Judiciary committee was a Democratic Delaware senator named Joe Biden.
Now, Kavanaugh is in the hot seat. Christina Blasey Ford, a professor of psychology, had initially asked her identity to be kept confidential when she wrote to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) alleging that Kavanaugh drunkenly assaulted her at at party when they were both in high school. Ford says she’s willing to testify to what happened before Senate Judiciary committee, which is now controlled by Republicans (but is more diverse in terms of gender and race, including four women members).
Republican Sen. John Kennedy, a member of the Judiciary Committee, says both the accuser and accused will have their chance to be heard next week, according to multiple news reports Monday evening.
Kavanaugh denied Ford’s claims in a statement issued through the White House earlier Monday: “I have never done anything like what the accuser describes—to her or to anyone,” the judge said, adding that he’d be glad to talk to the committee “to refute this false allegation, from 36 years ago, and defend my integrity.” Decades earlier, Thomas had emphatically denied engaging in the crude behavior Hill described.
Of course there are serious differences in the cases. Ford’s story recounts attempted rape, not harassment. She’s also coming forward in the #MeToo era, when there is an active conversation about believing women. (Listen to Hill’s questioning by the all-male panel, and you’ll instantly see that wasn’t top of anyone’s mind.)
Duke Professor Emerita Karla Holloway suspects that this time will be different with a Judiciary Committee whose female members include the ranking Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California, as well as Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Kamala Harris of California, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
“The powerfully present women on the judiciary will temper the aggressive hyper-masculinity we saw in play during the Thomas/Hill moment,” Holloway says: “[They] are clearly positioned and comfortable with challenging and naming that kind of aggression, and I think the men on the committee are aware enough of that potential to worry over how they publicly exercise their privilege. In this case, the political divide will be more telling than gender.”
FiveThirtyEight, in a look back at polling surrounding the Thomas confirmation, notes that his nomination was popular with the public. Not so with Kavanaugh: Recent surveys show Americans totally split on whether he should be confirmed.
In many ways, Hill arguably helped spark the change we are seeing today. Around the time of her testimony and after, polls found many more Americans considered workplace harassment a “very serious” issue. But Hill certainly paid a price for going public. Critics didn’t believe her; some were angry at her for upending the confirmation process for an African-American judge. Biden himself told Teen Vogue last year that he owed Hill an apology for what happened in the Thomas hearings, at which witnesses who backed her up weren’t allowed to testify.
By comparison, Ford, has gotten much more support—fairly understandable given the #MeToo movement, a fast-approaching midterm election focused heavily on women, and a social media-rich environment that didn’t exist when Hill took the stand. (Social media also means more opportunities for people to troll Ford—notably including the president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., who mocked Ford and Feinstein on Instagram.
Monday afternoon, President Trump defended Kavanaugh as having a spotless record—but, as Jeff Mason of Reuters reported, “signaled he would approve of a ‘little delay’ in the confirmation process” if necessary so as to go through a “complete process.”
Asked by reporters if Kavanaugh had volunteered to withdraw his name in light of the allegations, President Trump replied, “What a ridiculous question.” Decades earlier, then-President Bush had also come to the defense of his nominee, declaring his “total confidence” in Thomas.
Holloway thinks it’s not the allegation that will trouble Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Instead, she says, “His poorly advised ‘categorical denial’ will shift the question from past conduct to present truthfulness before the committee.”
Back when she confronted Thomas, Anita Hill was attacked for her character. She was denigrated as a “a bit nutty and a little bit slutty.” So far, the GOP has not resorted that precise kind of tactic to try to defend Kavanaugh. Instead, they are turning to political process. For example, the head of the Republican National Committee, Ronna Romney McDaniel, chose late Monday not to go after Kavanaugh’s accuser, but Sen. Feinstein, the top Democrat on Senate Judiciary, for doing “a disservice to everyone involved” with how she’s handled the allegations.
If Kavanaugh’s path to confirmation will mirror Thomas’ is still a looming question. Questioning got rough for Anita Hill when she spoke publicly about Justice Thomas, and it’s reasonable to expect some of the same if Christine Blasey Ford testifies before the Senate about Brett Kavanaugh.
When she does, America will have a front-row seat to see how much times have really changed. Or how much they haven’t.
Celeste Katz is senior political reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.
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