It looks we have our next Supreme Court Justice if you value the oddsmakers.
As of Friday morning, September 28, 2018, odds heavily favored Brett Kavanaugh being confirmed as the next United States Supreme Court at Yes (-350) and No (+275), meaning a wager on “Yes” for $350 wins $100 and a wager on “No” for $100 wins $275.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to meet Friday at 9:30 a.m. and will vote on whether to recommend Kavanaugh’s nomination for a full Senate vote.
If the committee votes in favor of the nomination, the vote to confirm Kavanaugh as the next Supreme Court Justice will have to wait three days due to federal law, meaning a confirmation vote could take place as early as Monday, October 1.
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate began hearing testimonies from both sexual assault accuser Christine Blasey Ford and President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Before the hearing got underway this morning, Bovada oddsmakers had the odds of Kavanaugh being confirmation at Yes (-170) and No (+140), meaning he was favored to be confirmed.
After Christine Blasey Ford gave her testimony about the alleged sexual assault committed by Kavanaugh when they were in high school, the odds on him being confirmed to flipped to Yes (+120) and No (-150), favoring him not to be confirmed.
However, Kavanaugh was then allowed to defend himself, which was followed up by emotional outbursts led by South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, accusing Senate Democrats of “the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics.”
As the committee allowed Kavanaugh to speak and followed up with questions, the odds flipped again and back to him being favored to be confirmed. The odds remain in his favor as of Friday morning.
The odds have been volatile all week as more women have come forward accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault and critics saying there were holes in Ford’s story.
On September 16, 2018, Ford publicly alleged Kavanaugh attempted to rape her in 1982 at a high school party and passed a polygraph test with a former FBI agent. Kavanaugh has refused to take a polygraph test despite having a favorable opinion of it being used in job interviews as judge in Sack v. Dept. of Defense (2016).
In addition to Ford, two more women have come forward alleging they were the victims Kavanaugh and his friends, while in high school, would get girls “inebriated and disoriented” so the girls could be “gang raped” by Kavanaugh and his friends.
One more woman claims to have witnessed Kavanaugh and others take advantage of inebriated women at parties.
Kavanaugh vehemently denies all sexual assault allegations from both Ford and the other accusers, claiming he is innocent of all charges.
It uncertain if senators on the committee will allow the confirmation vote to take place with many committee members being unsure to vote in favor of recommendation as of Friday morning going into the committee meeting.