Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing on the Kavanaugh sexual assault accusation

A committee vote on his nomination has also been delayed.

VOX

When Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University in California, came forward with a sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over the weekend, all eyes turned to the Senate: Would this stop the confirmation proceedings in their tracks?

By Monday evening, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s scheduled vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation had been delayed. Both Ford and Kavanaugh are scheduled to testify publicly in at a Senate hearing on Monday, September 24.

• A committee vote on Kavanaugh’s hearing has not been rescheduled — yet. This would be the first vote in the process of confirming Kavanaugh to the Court and serves as a recommendation to the Senate as a whole. The full Senate can still vote — and confirm — Kavanaugh even without the Judiciary Committee’s approval.
• Statements from both Republican and Democratic senators suggest an interest in investigating these allegations. But there is a big question about what that investigation would look like.
• Democrats want the FBI to spearhead the investigation into sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, not Congress. They argue that these allegations require a formal investigation and note that the partisan handling of Kavanaugh’s nomination thus far suggests that Congress is not up to the task. 

The likelihood of a protracted and ugly political fight over a crucial Supreme Court seat now hangs heavily over Washington, D.C.