“Bitter Tenor of Senate Reflects a Nation at Odds With Itself”: Alexander Burns will have this article in Saturday’s edition of The New York Times.

“Manchin to vote to confirm Kavanaugh; support makes confirmation likely”: Jake Zuckerman of The Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette-Mail has this report.

“Collins says she will vote to confirm Kavanaugh to Supreme Court; In a floor speech Friday, she also praises the #MeToo movement and says sexual assault victims deserve to be listened to”: Scott Thistle of The Portland (Me.) Press Herald has this report.

“‘Willing to go to the mat’: How Trump and Republicans carried Kavanaugh to the cusp of confirmation.” Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker, Sean Sullivan, and Seung Min Kim of The Washington Post have this report.

“Murkowski says it was Kavanaugh’s temperament — not Alaska Native issues or abortion — that swayed her vote”: Kyle Hopkins of The Anchorage Daily News has this report.

“I reported my rapist today so he can’t become a Supreme Court justice later”: Anne Vetter has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Susan Collins’ Bad Faith: Her pro-Kavanaugh speech on the Senate floor was an insult to Americans’ intelligence.” Mark Joseph Stern has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate. Therein, he writes, “The speech might as well have been written by Mitch McConnell and Ed Whelan. It was an embarrassment and a travesty.”

“Only the Seated Supreme Court Justices Can Save Us Now; The Kavanaugh debacle has taken us too far”: Dahlia Lithwick has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Investigation at Yale Law School: An inquiry into the actions of a prominent professor reveals why it’s so hard to report inappropriate behavior at the top law school in the country.” Dahlia Lithwick and Susan Matthews have this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

Earlier, at “Above the Law,” Elie Mystal had a post titled “Details On The Allegations Against, And Yale Law School Investigation Into, Professor Jed Rubenfeld; What is going on with Yale’s clerkship process, and when are they going to tell the rest of us?“

“Kavanaugh on the U.S. Supreme Court: sparks or harmony?” Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung of Reuters have this report.

“F.B.I. Review of Kavanaugh Was Limited From the Start”: Michael D. Shear, Michael S. Schmidt, and Adam Goldman of The New York Times have an article that begins, “An exasperated President Trump picked up the phone to call the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, last Sunday. Tell the F.B.I. they can investigate anything, he told Mr. McGahn, because we need the critics to stop. Not so fast, Mr. McGahn said.”

“Stephen Breyer Is Reading Aeschylus While the Supreme Court Burns Around Him; The justice stayed far away from the Brett Kavanaugh controversy in an interview on Thursday”: Emma Green of The Atlantic has an article that begins, “Stephen Breyer, the liberal justice who is rounding out two and a half decades on the Supreme Court, doggedly avoided saying anything remotely relevant to the scandal surrounding Brett Kavanaugh in an interview on Thursday.”

“Supreme Court Needs to Stay Out of Politics, Two Justices Say”: Greg Stohr and Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg News have a report that begins, “The U.S. Supreme Court needs to stay above the political fray, two justices said just hours after the Senate cleared the way for Brett Kavanaugh to be confirmed to the court after a bitter partisan fight.”

Anna Orso of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that “At Princeton event, Justices Kagan, Sotomayor avoid talking abut Kavanaugh but decry politicization of court.”

Adam Clark of NJ Advance Media reports that “Supreme Court could lose legitimacy if not viewed as impartial, Kagan and Sotomayor say ahead of Kavanaugh vote.”

James Nash of The Record of Hackensack, New Jersey has an article headlined “With Kavanaugh vote pending, Kagan, Sotomayor warn of court pulled into political fray.”

And Josh Gerstein of Politico reports that “Kagan fears Supreme Court losing swing justice.”

Reuters has posted video of the event at this link.

“House Democrat Promises Kavanaugh Investigation if Party Wins Control”: Nicholas Fandos and Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times have an article that begins, “House Democrats will open an investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct and perjury against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh if they win control of the House in November, Representative Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat in line to be the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on Friday.”

“Susan Collins’s Standard of Proof on Sexual Assault: The Maine senator said that allegations should be judged on whether they are ‘more likely that not,’ instead of whether they are beyond a reasonable doubt.” David A. Graham of The Atlantic has this report.

Therein, Graham writes, “this represents a strange triumph for Ed Whelan, the conservative legal scholar and friend of Kavanaugh’s.”

“The ‘corroboration’ dodge: Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation is credible and consistent; no one else needs to remember.” Linda Fairstein has this essay online at The New York Daily News.

“I Went to Georgetown Prep and Knew Mark Judge — and I Believe Christine Blasey Ford; There’s no question in my mind that she’s telling the truth”: Timothy Don has this essay online at The Nation.

“Why Can’t Christine Blasey Ford Remember How She Got Home? Time-dependent effects of stress on the hippocampus and memory — and why they matter.” Jim Hopper has this post at Scientific American.

“Brett Kavanaugh Has The Votes To Get On The Supreme Court; Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin both said they will vote yes, all but guaranteeing Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the Supreme Court this weekend”: Paul McLeod of BuzzFeed News has this report.

“Sen. Jeff Flake says he’ll support Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation unless something changes”: Ronald J. Hansen of The Arizona Republic has this report.

And Eliza Collins and Trevor Hughes of USA Today have an article headlined “All eyes fall to Murkowski, a crucial Republican swing vote for Kavanaugh in Senate.”

“ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary reopens evaluation of Kavanaugh”: The American Bar Association issued this news release about a letter that its Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary sent to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today.

“Kavanaugh’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Is a Fraud; This isn’t the first time the Supreme Court nominee has scrambled to clean up his partisan outbursts”: William Saletan has this essay online at Slate.

“Senate Advances Kavanaugh to Confirmation Vote; Sens. Manchin and Murkowski break from parties with early Kavanaugh votes”: Natalie Andrews and Kristina Peterson of The Wall Street Journal have this report.

“Kavanaugh Clears Key Procedural Vote on Way to Supreme Court”: Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times have this report.

And Seung Min Kim and John Wagner of The Washington Post report that “Senate votes to advance Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh for final confirmation, which could take place Saturday.”

“Friend of Dr. Ford Felt Pressure to Revisit Statement; At issue is statement to committee that she knew nothing about alleged sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh”: Natalie Andrews, Rebecca Ballhaus, and Sadie Gurman have this article in today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“Elizabeth Warren’s new, tantalizing claim about Kavanaugh shows what utter madness this is”: Columnist Greg Sargent has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“‘I am listening to you’: Manchin under pressure as the lone Democratic holdout on Kavanaugh.” Sean Sullivan, Mike DeBonis, and Seung Min Kim of The Washington Post have this report.

“Why is Lindsey Graham acting like this?” Ben Terris of The Washington Post has this report.

“No op-ed can clean up the Kavanaugh mess”: Columnist Jennifer Rubin has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Undecided senators stoke suspense ahead of Kavanaugh vote: Grassley says Republicans ‘don’t really know’ how a critical procedural vote will play out on Friday”: Burgess Everett, Elana Schor, and Andrew Restuccia of Politico have this report.

“No One Could Be Further From Atticus Finch: Defenders of Brett Kavanaugh liken themselves to the hero of To Kill a Mockingbird. That’s appalling.” Jamelle Bouie has this essay online at Slate.

“What Most Disqualifies Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court?” Adam Gopnik has this post online at The New Yorker.

Also online there, John Cassidy has a post titled “Is the Fight Over Brett Kavanaugh Really Good News for the G.O.P.?”

Michael Lista has a post titled “The Tears of Brett Kavanaugh.”

Troy Patterson has a post titled “Brett Kavanaugh’s Ignominious Place in the Long Tradition of Ivy League Carousing.”

Ian Crouch has a post titled “‘Revenge of the Nerds’ Enters the Brett Kavanaugh Culture War.”

And Amanda Petrusich has a post titled “Brett Kavanaugh, UB40, and Reggae’s Enduring Popularity Among White College Students.”

“I Am an Independent, Impartial Scorpion: Yes, I stung a frog last Thursday. I hope everyone can understand that I am just trying to get across this river.” Matthew Dessem has this essay online at Slate.

And a related image on Twitter features Yogi M. Bear.