The warning is bleak and dire. “People will die” we are told with gravitas and concern. And the warning comes from the academic elite, from students, faculty, and alumni of Yale University Law School. Yes, people will die if Justice Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed.
This is the latest example of apocalyptic fear-mongering associated with the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. To paraphrase the collective hysteria of the left, “Kavanaugh’s confirmation would mean the end of the world!”
On the one hand, I hope that many of the left’s worst fears are realized. I do hope that journalists like Jay Michaelson are accurate when they announce that, “Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court Pick, Is Probably the End of Abortion Rights and Same-Sex Marriage.”
For those unfamiliar with Michaelson, he is hardly an unhinged voice from the left. He is a well-educated gay activist (and rabbi), holding a J.D. from Yale and a Ph.D. from Hebrew University, and his fears are based on Kavanaugh’s judicial philosophy.
To repeat: I hope that, in this case, Michaelson’s fears are realized. I hope that Judge Kavanaugh will be confirmed, that he will have the opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade, and that he will make righteous decisions when it comes to marriage and family. May it be so!
Michaelson’s voice, however, is almost muted when compared to the rhetoric from his alma mater.
According to the open letter, with roughly 200 signees, “Now is the time for moral courage — which for Yale Law School comes at so little cost. Perhaps you, as an institution and as individuals, will benefit less from Judge Kavanaugh’s ascendent power if you withhold your support. Perhaps Judge Kavanaugh will be less likely to hire your favorite students. But people will die if he is confirmed. We hope you agree your sacrifice would be worth it. Please use your authority and platform to expose the stakes of this moment and the threat that Judge Kavanaugh poses.” (This letter stands in stark contrast from the glowing review of Kavanaugh published by Yale Law officials.)
What, exactly, are these “stakes”? What, precisely, is the “threat”? And how, to be specific, will people die?
Note the certainty of this Yale prediction. It is not, “People might die if he is confirmed.” It is, “People will die if he is confirmed.”
So say these Yale academics.
Are they suggesting that LGBT youth will kill themselves? A gay activist once told me on my radio show that if North Carolina voted to uphold marriage (which it did, by a large margin, until being overruled by the courts) that “gay teens will be jumping off bridges.”
Those of us who stand for biblical sexuality are often told we have blood on our hands, meaning, the blood of gay youth who are presumably driven to despair by our message of “hate.”
Is this what the Yale warning implies?
Perhaps it is talking about immigrants who will not be able to make it across our borders as they flee from drug cartels and other murderous groups. Is this what these academics have in mind?
Some of these issues are touched on in the open letter, and so the warning could be quite broad-based in its intent: Gay teens will die because same-sex “marriage” will be reversed. Aspiring immigrants will die because our borders will be closed. Kids will be massacred in schools because gun rights will be upheld.”
But there’s no reason to speculate. The Yale signees have made themselves crystal clear. While they are concerned about environmental issues and various social concerns, there is a primary reason they write that, “Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination presents an emergency — for democratic life, for our safety and freedom, for the future of our country.”
They are concerned about abortion (and contraception), and they see in Kavanaugh’s rulings “an intellectually and morally bankrupt ideologue intent on rolling back our rights and the rights of our clients.”
Should Kavanaugh be confirmed, the blood will certainly flow, presumably as a result of back-alley abortions.
And it is there that we have the profound irony of this open letter – or should I say its startling hypocrisy? These Yale elitists have stood reality on its head.
The issue is not that people will die in the future. The issue is that, as a result of Roe v. Wade, people have died. Tens of millions of them. More than the populations of our 20 biggest cities combined. More than the population of England.
More than 60 million people have died – little people, tiny people, defenseless people, innocent people – as a result of Roe v. Wade.
Should Judge Kavanaugh be confirmed, and should he rule as we pray he will, the day might well come when “people will live” as a result of the Court’s decisions.
It is my heartfelt prayer that we will live to see a culture of life arise in our nation. I also pray that many of the Yale signees will live long enough to realize the error of their ways and foolishness of their concerns.
Hopefully, people will live, not die, if Kavanaugh is confirmed.