Kavanaugh: Mean-spirited attack may haunt country

Does the confirmation process for Judge Brett Kavanaugh we just witnessed give us a view of the future of such proceedings? Will highly qualified jurists risk having a reputation dragged through the mud that was built up over decades on the bench?

Lost in this spectacle was the fact that jurists do not say how they will judge some future case without first hearing the evidence. That is why we have courts with a judge and jury. Will such proceedings ignore the Constitution’s guarantee that all people are “not guilty” before the law until it is proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, and that they are guilty as charged?

Is it reasonable to reach back to a Supreme Court nominee’s teen or college years to inquire if they have managed to commit no errors, to have not offended anyone, and to have been perfect in every way? If so, “Let the guiltless cast the first stone.”

We witnessed a mean-spirited attack on a highly qualified jurist based on how he might decide some future case. This inquisition before the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee was unworthy of the utterly shameless elected officials who so badly treated Kavanaugh.