BOSTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has repeatedly said that he was legally allowed to consume beer as a prep school senior in Maryland. In fact, he was never legal in high school because the state’s drinking age increased to 21 at the end of his junior year, while he was still 17.
Kavanaugh’s drinking has come under intense scrutiny after California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that a heavily intoxicated Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were both teenagers at a Maryland house party during the summer of 1982.
The legal age in that state was raised to 21 on July 1, 1982; Kavanaugh turned 18 on Feb. 12, 1983.
Kavanaugh, who incorrectly made the claim in testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, has denied Ford’s assault accusations.