LOS ANGELES, Sept. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- California Mediator, Attorney and Conflict Resolution Consultant Mark B. Baer predicts that Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh will take this country back into the Dark Ages on political, social and gender issues if he is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Mediator Baer’s assessment is based on a report published in the May 2014 issue of the American Journal of Political Science by authors Adam N. Glynn of Emory University and Maya Sen of Harvard University. The study is entitled “Identifying Judicial Empathy: Does Having Daughters Cause Judges to Rule for Women’s Issues?”
In that study, Glynn and Sen found that male judges who have daughters tend to have more liberal positions on political, social and gender issues than judges who only have sons. In other words, if these same judges are not moved by empathy toward their own daughters, when it comes to feminist issues, they tend to lack empathy toward anyone who does not look, think and act like they do.
“Supreme Court Justice Nominee Brett Kavanaugh is the father of two daughters, ages 10 and 12,” says Baer, “and yet, his track record demonstrates that having daughters has not softened his conservative ideological views at all.”
Kavanaugh, who is best known for playing a lead role in drafting the Starr Report, which called for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, is up for the seat of retired SCOTUS Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy, who had a daughter, was liberal and even proactive on gender issues, including women’s and LGBT rights, but voted conservatively on most other issues.
As a nominee, Kavanaugh calls the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist his “judicial hero.” During Rehnquist’s 33 year reign on the Supreme Court, from 1972 until his death in 2005, he consistently maintained traditional gender roles and voted against women’s rights’ issues despite raising two daughters.
Most notably, he was one of two dissenting votes in Roe vs. Wade, the federal decision that gave women the right to an abortion. In Frontiero vs. Richardson in 1973, Rehnquist ruled against providing a female military officer an allowance for her dependent husband, even though married military men were entitled to that same benefit. Rehnquist also voted for an automatic exemption for women from jury duty in 1979’s Duren vs. Missouri, based solely on their gender.
“In all of his decisions, it was clear that he did not accept any new ideas on the roles of the genders even though he saw society changing over his three decades on the bench,” says Baer.
“With the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh, we should expect to see social, civil and gender rights whittled away, piece by piece. Despite the advancements our society has made over the past 50 years, becoming more enlightened and accepting of non-traditional gender roles, Kavanaugh is not a Supreme Court Justice who will be able to support the freedoms many now enjoy and even hope to expand.
“While many people believe we cannot accurately predict how Kavanaugh will rule on such matters if confirmed to the Supreme Court, the research shows otherwise. For the same reasons, I predict the same outcome for President Trump’s recently confirmed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who has two daughters. Gorsuch replaced Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who despite having four daughters, never supported feminist or LGBT rights.”
California Mediator and Attorney Mark Baer is a prolific author and is considered to be a "thought leader" in the areas of family law, mediation, collaborative divorce and conflict resolution. Baer focuses his practice on conflict resolution and mediating divorces and child custody cases, among other types of family and interpersonal conflicts. As a thought leader in the area of Family Law, Baer was elected a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation in recognition of his exemplary dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession, and commitment to the welfare of society. He has written blogs for both the Huffington Post and Psychology Today on many topics with the ultimate goal of improved interpersonal relationships and decision-making through a deeper understanding of ourselves and others.
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Mark B. Baer, Esq: at (626) 389-8929
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