& # 39;. Cloud & # 39; & # 39; Crisis of legitimacy. & # 39; & # 39;. Entacher & # 39; Legal experts on Kavanaugh join the court.

Brett Kavanaugh joins the Supreme Court as a damaged merchandise, preoccupied with issues related to his integrity that he may never be able to surpass in the long run, said an expert in the matter.

"I do not think he'll ever be able to dissociate himself from what just happened," said Benjamin Barton, a professor at the University of Tennessee's Faculty of Law. "For Kavanaugh, it's a situation of the first paragraph of his obituary.He will be known for that and stuck to that for his career."

Barton added, "In each case, people will say," Hmm, I wonder what Kavanaugh has decided for that? "When we have a whole series of 5 or 4 decisions with Kavanaugh, it will look like a partisan body, which is terrible for the Supreme Court and bad for the country."

NBC News has spoken with eight court observers, including academics, former clerks and former legislative counsel, in order to obtain this version of the most recent court member. while he's starting his work on the court this week.

All the experts, regardless of their political orientation or judicial philosophy, offered Kavanaugh and the court a very dark prognosis: That his reputation as a jurist has suffered, perhaps irreversibly; that the perception that it can fairly adjudicate on several critical issues has been reduced; and that the public opinion on the fairness of the court will fall, perhaps hastily. Some, however, have stated that the only thing that would have the opportunity to cure the judicial wound would be the mere passage of time.

Court observers said they were shocked by the candidate's unstable and fiery temperament during his testimony and by his open partisanship and contempt for Democrats in the Judiciary Committee.

Barton, former clerk of a US judge at the Court of Appeal and author of the famous study conducted in 2012 on the personal background of judges before the Supreme Court, pointed out that even though "the integrity the Supreme Court ended up being unscathed by the presence of Kavanaugh, damage will be caused.

"The perceived The integrity of the court is just as important, "he said. And for the perceived integrity of the court, it is a disaster. "

& # 39; SIGNIFICANT CLOUD & # 39;

Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the University of New York Law School, a center of law and public policy on the left that does not take a stand on the candidates, went over far, claiming that Mr. Kavanaugh would indeed "harm the real credibility, legitimacy and authority of the United States Supreme Court".

"The process throughout this candidacy creates a serious risk to the legitimacy of the court," she added. "And that will not go away."

For Weiser, it was not just Kavanaugh's "misguided comments" about alcohol consumption, his "visible disrespect" to Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Or her "very partisan" statements at the hearing – although she said were all to her detriment.

"Cases concerning women's rights and gender issues will obviously be challenged," said Weiser. "But honestly, I'm worried about what he's doing in court." If half of the country feels that one of the Supreme Court members has committed sexual assault and lack of sexual assault. integrity, it would undermine the perception of all court decisions. "

A court with Kavanaugh has a "permanent stain," she concluded.

Anil Kalhan, professor at the Kline School of Law at Drexel University and former clerk of two federal judges, said that for all the issues related to the confirmation process, it was Kavanaugh's appearance before the committee who "would project the most important cloud".

"I think it just puts his partisanship at the center of his concerns," said Kalhan, referring to Kavanaugh's claims that the "national disgrace" of a confirmation process would have been caused by a "leftist" opposition "based on" revenge on the part of the Clintons ". "

"He may have had anger and raw emotion, or even outrage based on what happened to him," Kalhan added. "But partisanship, then its hostility and lack of obvious respect to senators, does not inspire much confidence, it's as close as we've been to a potential crisis of legitimacy that I can think of my life. "

Probably hurt

The partisan tensions already present around the Supreme Court will certainly worsen, said several experts.

Some Democrats have threatened – if they resumed the House or Senate in November – to open new investigations into the charges against Kavanaugh, some even considering the possibility of an impeachment proceeding.

Kalhan and others have proposed a solution that they believe could potentially mitigate the damage to the integrity of the court: avoid urgent problems for a period of time.

"By the end of the day, it could change what the court is doing," Kalhan said. "If the Court addresses issues that do not concern many broad sections of the population, then it can reverse itself, but if it makes controversial decisions about the right to abortion, contraception or freedom of religion, it's not likely. "

Some have expressed doubts that Kavanaugh is recanting such cases, but think that it is an idea that deserves to be considered.

THE CASE OF CLARENCE THOMAS

On the other hand, some of the experts with whom NBC News has spoken have said they believe that the public opinion on the Supreme Court would recover after a long time.

Michael Dorf, a professor at Cornell Law School and a lawyer with former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, predicted that the saga would affect public opinion about Kavanaugh "at least for a while, a few years, "but he added:" Over time, memories will fade and other issues will gain in importance. "

To make their point, Dorf and others believed that Clarence Thomas had largely survived the controversy surrounding his 1991 confirmation, when Anita Hill brought sexual harassment charges against him.

"Most voters do not know much about the court and they will forget about it," said Dorf. "We are now routinely talking about Judge Thomas's rulings, or his dissent and his conservative jurisprudence, not as much as Anita Hill."

Barton, from the College of Law of the University of Tennessee, acquiesced, but pointed out that the fact that the Hill-Thomas hearing did not undermine the reputation of justice does not mean that she did not have a significant impact on her behavior and style. on the bench.

"He's low profile, he hardly ever speaks in business," said Barton. Thomas did not ask a question at the Supreme Court hearing for 10 years during the closing arguments, thus ending his silence.

Kalhan of Drexel's Kline School of Law, however, disagrees that the passage of almost three decades has provided Thomas with a "road map of some sort to make it acceptable".

"Things have not gone bad for Clarence Thomas, people are still talking about Anita Hill," he said. "And the idea that Thomas's situation had no political consequences is wrong." That motivated women and Democrats in 1992. It was "the year of the woman" "- when nearly 50 women were elected to the House and six to the Senate.

And Weiser, from the Brennan Center, said comparisons between Thomas and Kavanaugh were not possible because the latter "occurs at a very different time when people were thinking and waiting for us to move forward and we will go from the front. "

Llya Somin, a professor at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, spoke of another high-profile case in which partisan politics mingled with the court – Bush v. Gore who decided the 2000 presidential election.

"There is a story of situations where people say," This will affect the permanent legitimacy of the court "- which happened after Bush v. Gore, and although people certainly talk about it, they do not. They have not had a long-term impact on the perception or legitimacy of the court, "said Somin.

But several experts agreed that things seemed different this time, because of the seriousness of the allegations and the way they were handled by Kavanaugh.

"Anita Hill's allegation against Clarence Thomas, although serious, did not involve such harmful conduct as would have been committed by Kavanaugh," Dorf said.

"So, in that sense, you might see that it's a cloud on him," he said. "For a long time."