The new cover of Time Magazine is, well… It’s on point, to say the least.
The long-running news magazine has a history of being on the forefront of contemporaneous opinion, and these days, popular opinion is this: Nominating someone for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court is serious business and should be taken seriously.
The specter of sexual misconduct is only the largest obstacle that Trump’s latest nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, has faced during his confirmation. There are serious reservations among Senators on the Judiciary Committee who are critical thinkers — that is to say, those whose primary purpose in the process is not to simply confirm quickly a nominee who is reliably a member of their political class and way of thinking.
There’s also the fact that Kavanaugh has now been credibly accused by multiple Senators of lying under oath, not just in the past, but in this very series of hearings. There’s the fact that Kavanaugh has a history of opining in the affirmative when it comes to cases involving a unitary executive — so long as they’re conservative, a President with unlimited power and unchecked authority is something this would-be Justice can get behind.
But it’s the bizarrely political case of Christine Blasey Ford that has America hanging on to the edge of their seats right now. Are we about to see the ascension of a sexual predator — a man who stands accused of assaulting a girl who was a minor at the time — without so much as an official investigation?
That’s clearly what was on the minds of the editors at Time when the new cover needed a design. What powerful image could we conjure up from the past, they must have wondered, that will drive home the gravity of this appointment.
It doesn’t take anyone long to draw a parallel that is striking in its similarity to today: Justice Clarence Thomas, who was affirmed to the Court despite the accusations of Anita Hill, a woman who, apart from inside Republican circles, is almost universally believed.
In hindsight.
So is this the ghost of Thomas? He’s not passed, so perhaps it’s Brett Kavanaugh simply casting a shadow behind him that looks a lot like the “Silent Justice” who eked by in the shade of a serious allegation. Either way, the image is clear: This is a reminder of how to get things right before hindsight is necessary.
TIME’s new cover: Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation is now the ultimate test of political power in 2018 https://t.co/IbFrdpGVxo pic.twitter.com/Ca171TM8Zt
— TIME (@TIME) September 20, 2018
Featured image via screen capture
