Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings for nomination to the Supreme Court concluded on Friday, Sept. 7.

The hearing was punctuated with striking images of protestors dressed as the repressed class of woman from Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The protests did not end there – ultimately more than 200 protestors were arrested throughout the 4-day hearings. A board member of the Women’s March claimed that 209 of the 217 arrests were members of the group.

Despite the protests, and after four days of contentious questions and protests, many news outlets reported the same thing: Kavanaugh will likely be confirmed once Congress resumes in October.

The confirmation process only requires a majority in the Senate, and one of the chamber’s wild cards, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was reassured by Kavanaugh’s stance that Roe v. Wade was legal precedent.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is another senator typically viewed as a swing vote, yet her office has not made public statements on the matter, despite facing strong resistance to a “yes” vote from a core constituency, Alaskan Natives.

The hearings began on Tuesday, Sept. 4 with the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, barely able to introduce Kavanaugh before being interrupted by Sen. Kamala Harris, R-Calif.

Dominic Matigian, junior in the Heider College of Business, and president of College Republicans, spoke on behalf of College Republicans and said, “The Kavanaugh hearings are more of a display of grandstanding and campaigning for president by Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris than a legitimate inquiry into the qualifications of a judicial candidate.”

Harris, along with other senate democrats, expressed a need for time to comb through the 42 thousand pages of documents released the night before the hearings.

There is standing precedent to examine all available documents related to a nominee’s legal and political work. It was invoked by Republicans to review documents from Justice Elena Kagan’s time spent in the White House Counsel’s office as policy advisor to President Clinton.

Democrats argue that the same standard should be applied to Kavanaugh, who spent three years working for Ken Starr in the investigation into President Clinton. He also served in the White House Counsel’s office under President Bush and later as staff secretary for the Bush White House.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters that Republicans are “cherry-picking” the documents made available. Few of the documents released relate to Kavanaugh’s time as staff secretary, which some think would reveal important details about his policy positions, perhaps on torture, abortion and presidential impeachment.  

Paul Romero, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and president of College Democrats, commented on the hearings on behalf of his organization.

“For Americans who are concerned about the corruption of the current administration, … the catering of our democratic institutions to an elite minority, … who believe a woman should be able to make her own healthcare decisions, … who are tired of the regressive status quo: this pick should be concerning,” said Romero.