I spoke with the BBC World Service on Wednesday about the latest development over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh (pictured) as Supreme Court Justice, now facing difficulty because of the allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a woman when he was 17.

Dan Damon and I talk about the delay in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Kavanaugh, with the prospect that his confirmation will not occur before November’s Congressional elections; the call by Kavanaugh’s alleged victim, Professor Christine Blasey Ford, for an FBI investigation before she appears before the Committee; and the cold reality that politics — in this case the Republican desire to rush through a confirmation — always takes precedence over legal considerations.

Politics rules: the Republicans want this through as quickly as possible. But there’s the wider optic of public opinion, especially when there has been a shift in America to say we need to take these allegations of sexual seriously.

Will people see politics as unnecessarily taking over from what could be a serious case, given the nature of the allegation?

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