Judge Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice on Oct. 6 after several controversial hearings in which he denied allegations of wrongdoing in years prior.

In July 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh for a position on the Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States, after former Justice Anthony Kennedy retired.

After the nomination, Christine Blasey Ford, a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University in California, went public with her sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, claiming Kavanaugh was inebriated at a party where he “pinned her down and sexually assaulted her when they were both teenagers in the 1980’s” according to a Vox article (Vox.com). The incident reportedly ended when Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge, who had been watching, jumped on Kavanaugh and Ford, and knocked them both off the bed.

Ford’s husband, Russell, supported his wife’s argument shortly after the allegations were leaked to the public, stating that Ford told him about the incident back in 2002.  Ford went on to tell other friends of what happened, including her therapist, years before the information went public.

Ellen Restivo, a special education teacher  said, “I believe that people are ‘innocent until proven guilty’… not the other way around.  Now it seems like an accusation is made and the accusation could destroy someone’s family, career, and life, whether the accusation is true or false.  It is not fair and doesn’t support our Constitution.”

Kavanaugh used his calendar from the summer of 1989 (the year of the accused incident) as evidence to fight the allegations. The calendar claimed that Kavanaugh never attended the party at all; however, others claim Kavanaugh could simply have never written down the party.

Not long after Ford’s initial accusations, another woman, Deborah Ramirez, accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. According to the Colorado native, who works with the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (SPAN), Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a party they both attended at Yale University decades ago (first reported by The New Yorker). At the party, many people, Ramirez included, had consumed alcohol, but she says she distinctly remembers Kavanaugh’s name being shouted shortly after the occurrence.

A third accuser, Julie Swetnick, eventually stepped forward with claims similar to Ford’s and Ramirez. Swetnick claims to have witnessed Kavanaugh act disrespectfully towards women during parties. At these parties, groups of men reportedly put intoxicated girls in rooms and lined up to enter the rooms; she argued she saw Kavanaugh on one of these lines. Freshman Helaina Rehs says, “I am against Kavanaugh and do not want to support the idea of him in a high position of power.”  To the contrary, Junior Caroline Ridings argues, “I believe that Kavanaugh is innocent and that this woman may just be saying these things to ruin his career.”

The U.S. Senate began a confirmation hearing on Sep. 4 to decide the validity of the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh. During the hearing, Kavanaugh rejected the accusations against him as outlandish, claiming he had no part in any of these events.

On Oct. 5, after weeks of testimonies, the Senate voted, advancing Kavanaugh to a final vote the next day, which he won, 50-48, officially making him a Supreme Court Justice.