Sen. Susan Collins said she would withhold judgment on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court until she observed his confirmation hearings. Those hearings have now produced documentary indications that, despite his caginess in testimony, he would vote against a woman’s right to choose and against health insurance protection for people with preconditions.

In his cold refusal to acknowledge the father of a Parkland shooting victim at the hearing and his unbelievable assertion that assault weapons are “not dangerous,” he has shown that he resists facing the human consequences of his judicial decisions.

And in the refusal of Republicans on the Judiciary Committee to release the vast majority of his records, they and he make clear that he has something to hide that could scuttle his nomination, probably including earlier perjury about his knowledge of the theft of committee documents.

Those indications mean that if Sen. Collins voted for Kavanaugh’s confirmation, she could not claim to stand for the basic beliefs she has long espoused and she could be condemning this country to witness a Supreme Court justice driven from office by the proof of his criminal dishonesty when his full record does eventually emerge.

James Parakilas, Lewiston

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