Christine Blasey Ford and the Search for a Standard of Proof

In a likely redux of the 1991 Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill hearings, Washington appears headed for dramatic public testimony by the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who’s accused him of sexual assault when they were teens, the research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford. After negotiations over the weekend with Ford’s lawyers, Judiciary Committee Republicans announced on Sunday afternoon that a hearing was set for 10 a.m. Thursday.

But what should that hearing look like? How can senators determine what happened at a high-school house party in the 1980s? How should they treat a private citizen who has come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against a man up for a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court? How