Dozens of protesters opposing Brett Kavanaugh have gathered outside the Supreme Court wearing teal coloured clothes - a sartorial salute to Anita Hill who was grilled by the same senate committee 27 years ago.
Mr Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused the judge of trying to forcibly remove her clothes at a high school party in Maryland three decades ago, are to give testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee will decide whether to pass Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination into the full senate for a confirmation vote.
It was the same committee that Ms Hill, then aged 35, appeared before in October 1991 to allege that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually assaulted her. Ms Hill, a lawyer and government employee was wearing a teal blouse when she delivered her testimony. He denied the accusations.
“It is only after a great deal of agonising consideration and a sleepless number – a great number of sleepless nights that I am able to talk of these unpleasant matters to anyone but my close friends,” Ms Hiil said in her opening statement.
The questioning of Ms Hill by the panel of all white male senators, is remembered as one of ugliest moments on Capitol Hill. Many senators said they believed she was making up her accusations; one of two senators still on the committee, Republican Orrin Hatch, has already said he believes Ms Ford is similarly mistaken in her claims about Mr Kavanaugh.
Thursday morning’s protesters gathered at the bae of the steps to the Supreme Court, where Mr Kavanaugh would go to work if he is confirmed. Activists said they believed he would shift the court to the right and may be inclined to get rid of rulings such as 1973’s Roe v Wade, which guaranteed women the right to a legal abortion.
The protesters in teal said it was depressing Ms Ford was having to go through the same emotional wringer Ms Hill had.
“We are here to show support for Ms Ford and for non-violence,” said Miranda Eisen, from Portland, Oregon.
Linda Fredrickson, from Burbank, California, said: “By being here, we are saying that women have had enough. There need to be consequences.”
One woman carrying a placard who said she had been in college when the court voted to pass Roe v Wade, said before then, young women had to discreetly travel to New York to obtain illegal abortions. Such procedures were also carried out in the Washington DC area, her friend said
Often such procedures were unsafe and the women died. “I am just tired of having to keep on holding up the same sign,” said the woman.
Ms Hill, whose testimony was largely dismissed by senators, who also refused to allow her to call witnesses in support of her story, has said the way the claims of three women who have accused Mr Kavanaugh of sexual assault or misconduct has been a mockery.
Ms Hill, 62, now a professor of social policy, law, gender and sexuality studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, told an event in Utah that what was happening was “a commentary really on values”.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, she added: “I hope that we can all be open to hearing [Ford] and evaluating based on what we hear and without the lens of the myths that have followed this hearing.”
In the end, the senators believed Mr Thomas, who adamantly denied Ms Hills accusations. He was confirmed in a narrow vote – 52 to 48.
Today, he remains a firmly conservative justice on the court, still denying the accusations made of him, and would become a colleague of Mr Kavanaugh if he is also confirmed.
