Photo : Mary Schwalm ( AP Photo )

Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley plans on introducing a House resolution Tuesday calling for an impeachment inquiry of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who recently became the subject of another sexual misconduct allegation.


“Sexual predators do not deserve a seat on the nation’s highest court and Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process set a dangerous precedent,” Pressley said in a statement released on Monday. “We must demand justice for survivors and hold Kavanaugh accountable for his actions.”

A New York Times story published over the weekend revealed a new allegation from Kavanaugh’s time at Yale University, in which a former classmate said he witnessed Kavanaugh “with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party,” his penis pushed into the hands of a female student by his friends. The incident was not investigated by the FBI.


However, the Times published an update on Monday noting the female student “declined to be interviewed and friends say that she does not recall the incident.’”

The incident described in the Times mirrors that of another Kavanaugh accuser, Deborah Ramirez, on whom much of the article is focused. His history of sexual assault was also a focal point during his confirmation hearings, which featured long and grueling testimony from Christine Blasey Ford.

Ford testified that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a house party when they were both teenagers.

“I believe Christine Blasey Ford. I believe Deborah Ramirez,” Pressley said Monday. “It is our responsibility to collectively affirm the dignity and humanity of survivors.”


A survivor of sexual abuse herself, Pressley has long championed the rights of women and survivors. Before taking office, Pressley—then a Boston city councilor—spoke out against Kavanaugh’s confirmation at a rally last fall and wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe calling out the confirmation process, which she criticized for its lack of transparency.

“Justice should not be a partisan issue. And I am supremely confident that Kavanaugh has proven himself to be unhinged, unfit, and unqualified,” Pressley wrote. “Kavanaugh’s tenure on the bench will be indelibly colored by the stories of Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick.”


Pressley’s resolution would allow a congressional committee to open an investigation into Kavanaugh issuing subpoenas and obtaining affidavits and depositions.

Several Democratic presidential hopefuls have called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment since the Times story broke. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro said Kavanaugh lied under oath during his confirmation testimony last year. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) also called for impeachment, tweeting that Kavanaugh’s nomination “was rammed through the Senate without a thorough examination of the allegations against him.”


“Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing,” Warren added. “Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.”