I find Republican caviling at the Brett Kavanaugh hearings baffling. For just a moment, let us set aside the allegations that the Supreme Court nominee might be a sexual predator — an attempted rapist when he was in high school. According to published reports, Kavanaugh’s criminal acts happened while he was “stumbling drunk”…and a teenager. So, to be kind, let’s also set aside that he was a stumbling drunk…minor.

Here is what I find baffling. Why would anyone in 2018 decide to disenfranchise women regarding the governance of their own bodies? Roe v. Wade has been settled law for 45 years. Women’s sexual rights, regarding contraception and abortion, should be inviolate — nobody’s business but their own. Nevertheless, Kavanaugh subverted Roe v. Wade in a recent immigrant ruling. His views are clear.

In 21st century America, allowing “religious convictions” to supersede another person’s individual rights should be considered constitutional heresy. That’s why we have the separation of church and state — or rather, the separation of bigotry from law.

The same may be said about the individual rights of the LGBTQ community. No one should be able to superimpose narrow-minded “religious convictions” on anyone. We are not a theocracy.

Kavanaugh should be rejected because he would be an anachronism. His views are anathema to the concept of individual “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

John Scannell

Sammamish