College students walked out of classes across the nation last Thursday, ahead of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote that took place over the weekend. Students at the University of Vermont, Champlain College, University of California-Berkeley, and DePaul University chose that day to protest the most recent Supreme Court nominee named by President Donald Trump Campus Reform recounts. The walkout protests were another part of the anti-Kavanaugh efforts on the Left, which ranged from additional sexual assault allegations at the last minute and demands from Democratic U.S. Senators on delaying the vote, but the college walkouts received little media attention due to the focus on the confirmation vote.
At Berkeley, students walked out to “Cancel Kavanaugh,” while the University of Vermont and Champlain College held their version of the protest, entitled, “Cancel Class. Cancel Kavanaugh.” Seventy-five people at Vermont signed onto a letter that condemned Kavanaugh and urged people to join their dissent, but it was not confirmed if all were faculty members. DePaul’s event was entitled, “Disbar Kavanaugh: We Believe Survivors!”
The protests add to the ongoing denouncement of Kavanaugh by Yale University and Harvard Law School students, with Kavanaugh agreeing to not teach a semester at Harvard Law as previously scheduled.
Kavanaugh was confirmed by a vote of 50-48 on Saturday, mostly along party lines, outside of the defection of Democratic West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin to vote in favor of Kavanaugh. Alaskan Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski voted against Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins’s vote for Kavanaugh, ultimately pushing Kavanaugh through to the Supreme Court. Collins delivered a forty-five minute speech on Friday, a day before the confirmation vote, noting the inconsistencies of sexual assault accuser Dr. Christy Blasey Ford.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation marks the second Supreme Court nominee under President Trump, and with an aging court, Trump could nominate another justice before the end of his first term or into a potential second term. If the anti-Kavanaugh accusations were any indicator of future tactics, future nominations to the Supreme Court could become more volatile.
