It’s Susan Collins’s Moment

If Brett Kavanaugh were on trial for sexual assault, all he’d need do is demonstrate reasonable doubt about the charges being made against him. But a Republican nominee to the Supreme Court is tried in the media, where Mr. Kavanaugh must now do the impossible: prove an assault never happened.

Christine Blasey Ford alleges that at a high-school party 36 years ago, 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothes, and covered her mouth so she couldn’t scream. Ms. Ford, now a professor at California’s Palo Alto University, says she was able to flee the room only after a friend of Mr. Kavanaugh’s, Mark Judge, jumped on top of them and they all tumbled off the bed. Ms. Ford further says she didn’t tell anyone what happened at the time.

Judge Kavanaugh’s denial is categorical: “I have never done anything like what the accuser describes—to her or anyone,” he said in a statement Monday. Mr. Judge likewise denies it all. “It’s just absolutely nuts,” he told the Weekly Standard. “I never saw Brett act that way.”

The truth is, no one knows what went on in that Maryland bedroom at that party—or if Mr. Kavanaugh was even there. Absent corroborating testimony, even the Federal Bureau of Investigation would have no way to reveal much more.

So here we are, just days before what should have been a Thursday vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Since Ms. Ford’s name became public, one member of that committee, Jeff Flake, the retiring Republican from Arizona, announced he wouldn’t feel comfortable going ahead with a vote without a fuller airing of Ms. Ford’s complaint. In a committee of 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, Mr. Flake would give the Democrats the majority they need to stall a vote.