The fight over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination has lately been dominated by hotly contested allegations that he behaved badly toward women while drinking heavily in high school and college.
On that controversy, I won’t comment prior to the upcoming hearings. Yet the sustained attention it has cast on the nominee’s unusually rarified educational background has left me increasingly averse to his confirmation for reasons that have nothing to do with his accusers or their claims.
Kavanaugh attended Yale Law School––a fine institution. I do not object to confirming a Yale Law graduate to the Supreme Court. I also wouldn’t oppose confirming a graduate of Harvard Law to the Supreme Court.
In a patrician mood, I’d even take two of each.
The fear driving conservative support for Kavanaugh
But I do worry about a Supreme Court where literally all nine members received their respective legal education at either Harvard or Yale Law.
Behold the status quo:
- Clarence Thomas attended College of the Holy Cross and Yale Law.
- Sonia Sotomayor attended Princeton and Yale Law.
- Samuel Alito attended Princeton and Yale Law.
- Elena Kagan attended Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard Law.
- Neil Gorsuch attended Georgetown Preparatory School––the same elite high school as Kavanaugh1––Columbia University, and Harvard Law.
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg attended Cornell University, Harvard Law, and Columbia Law.
- Stephen Breyer attended Stanford University, Oxford, and Harvard Law.
- John Roberts attended Harvard and Harvard Law.