# Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination refers to the July 2018 nomination and October 2018 confirmation of federal judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, a three-month political fight that produced a run of viral internet moments including Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault testimony, a UB40 bar-fight backstory, jokes about Kavanaugh's teenage personal calendars, and the Zina Bash 'white power' hand-sign conspiracy theory. ## Overview Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination refers to the July 2018 nomination and October 2018 confirmation of federal judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, a three-month political fight that pulled in a chain of viral internet moments. Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault allegation dominated the news cycle in September 2018[1], and the confirmation hearings threw off a run of side stories, from a hand-sign conspiracy theory about a Kavanaugh staffer to a 1985 bar-fight report involving the soft reggae band UB40[5]. The memes broke into two rough clusters. One centered on Kavanaugh himself, including his 1982 personal calendars with entries for 'Beach Week,' his angry testimony demeanor, and his 'I liked beer, I still like beer' quote[9]. The other pulled from reaction shots at the September 27, 2018 hearing, from Ford's account of the alleged assault to the visible expressions of the women seated behind Kavanaugh. ## How It Spread On September 4, 2018, the Senate Judiciary Committee opened confirmation hearings, and within hours a Twitter theory alleging that Kavanaugh staffer Zina Bash had flashed a 'white power' hand sign while seated behind him at the hearing racked up tens of thousands of retweets, though the interpretation was widely disputed[9]. Ten days later, on September 14, The New Yorker broke the existence of Ford's confidential letter and reported that Senate Democrats had referred the complaint to the FBI[2]. Ford went public in a Washington Post interview on September 16, and a second accuser, Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez, came forward in a New Yorker report on September 23 alleging that Kavanaugh had exposed himself to her at a party during the 1983-84 academic year[3]. Kavanaugh released his 1982 personal calendars in an attempt to show he had not attended the party Ford described, but Twitter mocked entries like 'Beach Week' and joked about a 17-year-old keeping meticulous datebooks. On September 26, attorney Michael Avenatti released a sworn declaration from a third accuser, Julie Swetnick, and the following day Ford and Kavanaugh both testified in a nationally televised hearing. The final week generated its own meme cycle. On October 1, the New York Times reported that Kavanaugh had been questioned but not arrested by New Haven police in 1985 for throwing ice at another patron at a bar following a UB40 concert, which Twitter turned into a running joke about the soft reggae band's catalog[5]. The Times then had to publicly acknowledge that co-byline Emily Bazelon had tweeted opposition to Kavanaugh in July and should not have been assigned to the story[6]. On October 3, Capitol Police arrested 27-year-old Jackson Cosko, an intern for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, for editing GOP senators' Wikipedia pages with their home addresses and private cell numbers during the hearings[8]. On October 4, the FBI completed its brief supplemental background investigation, delivered as paper '302' interview summaries readable only inside a Capitol SCIF with no digital copies allowed[7]. Kavanaugh was confirmed 50-48 on October 6 and sworn in the same day by Chief Justice John Roberts. ## How to Use Most of the reusable formats came from freeze frames of the September 27 hearing. Screenshots of Kavanaugh's 1982 calendar entries, his 'I like beer' testimony line, and reaction shots of the women behind him all worked as macros for political Twitter. UB40 references still surface in political discussion threads whenever a public figure gets caught in an old bar story[5], and the phrase 'boofing' from Kavanaugh's yearbook picked up a life of its own after the hearing. ## Cultural Impact Trump himself fed the meme cycle. At an October 2, 2018 Mississippi rally, he did a one-man reenactment of Ford's Senate testimony, alternating between her voice and her inquisitor's and repeating 'I don't remember' to a crowd that had voted 65-31 for him in 2016[4]. Michael Bromwich, an attorney for Ford, called the performance 'a vicious, vile and soulless attack'[4]. Republican think-tank president Ed Whelan produced a shorter-lived viral moment by tweeting Google Maps and yearbook photos claiming a Kavanaugh doppelganger had been the real assailant, and retracting the thread within 24 hours after bipartisan backlash. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination? It refers to the July 2018 nomination and October 6, 2018 confirmation of federal judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, a three-month process that produced dozens of viral memes including Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault testimony[1], jokes about a 1985 UB40 bar fight[5], and mockery of Kavanaugh's teenage personal calendars. ### Where did Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination come from? President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh on July 9, 2018 to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, and the meme cluster grew out of the confirmation hearings that followed in September and October 2018[2]. ### What does Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination mean? As an internet event, it covers the cluster of viral moments during the fall 2018 confirmation, from Ford's letter and testimony[1] to the UB40 memes[5] to the Zina Bash hand-sign controversy[9]. ### How do you use Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination? The confirmation produced reusable formats including calendar screenshot jokes, 'I like beer' reaction images, and UB40 references that still appear in political Twitter threads when an old bar story about someone surfaces[5]. ### Is Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination still popular? The specific memes are historical to 2018, but Kavanaugh is still on the Supreme Court after his October 6 confirmation, and UB40 references still appear in political discussion[5]. ### Who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault? Professor Christine Blasey Ford wrote a July 30, 2018 letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein describing an assault at a Maryland house party in the early 1980s[1]. Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez later came forward in The New Yorker with a separate college-era allegation[3], and a third woman, Julie Swetnick, submitted a sworn declaration through attorney Michael Avenatti. ### What was the Zina Bash controversy? On September 4, 2018, footage of Kavanaugh staffer Zina Bash sitting behind him at his first hearing spread on Twitter with claims she had flashed a 'white power' hand sign, an interpretation that was widely disputed[9]. ### What is the Kavanaugh UB40 meme? An October 1, 2018 New York Times story reported that Kavanaugh had been questioned by New Haven police in 1985 for throwing ice at a bar patron after a UB40 concert at Demery's, which Twitter turned into jokes about the soft reggae band[5]. ### What is the Kavanaugh calendar meme? Kavanaugh released his personal calendars from summer 1982 as evidence he had not attended the party Ford described; Twitter mocked entries like 'Beach Week' and questioned why a 17-year-old kept meticulous datebooks[9]. ### Did Trump mock Christine Blasey Ford? Yes. At an October 2, 2018 rally in Southaven, Mississippi, Trump did a one-man reenactment of Ford's Senate testimony, repeating 'I don't remember' in her voice, despite previously calling her testimony credible[4]. ### Did the FBI investigate the allegations? The White House said on October 4, 2018 that the FBI had completed a supplemental background investigation delivered as paper '302' interview forms readable only inside the Capitol's SCIF, with no digital copies made[7]. ### Who was arrested during the hearings? On October 3, 2018, Capitol Police arrested 27-year-old Jackson Cosko, an intern for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, for editing GOP senators' Wikipedia pages with their home addresses and private cell numbers[8]. ### What was the final Senate vote? Kavanaugh was confirmed 50-48 on October 6, 2018 and sworn in the same day by Chief Justice John Roberts[2]. ## References 1. [https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/16/politics/blasey-ford-kavanaugh-letter-feinstein/index.html]() 2. [https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-sexual-misconduct-allegation-against-the-supreme-court-nominee-brett-kavanaugh-stirs-tension-among-democrats-in-congress]() 3. [https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/senate-democrats-investigate-a-new-allegation-of-sexual-misconduct-from-the-supreme-court-nominee-brett-kavanaughs-college-years-deborah-ramirez]() 4. [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-mocks-christine-blasey-ford-mississippi-campaign-rally-n916061]() 5. [https://mashable.com/article/brett-kavanaugh-ub40-meme-explained/]() 6. [https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/02/media/new-york-times-kavanaugh-tweet/index.html]() 7. [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/who-s-allowed-read-fbi-s-confidential-kavanaugh-report-how-n916441]() 8. [https://gizmodo.com/capitol-police-arrest-intern-for-doxing-u-s-senators-1829509933]() 9. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-nomination]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-nomination Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library