“Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus”…

…which means “false in one thing, false in everything.”

Last week’s Kavanaugh hearings triggered vivid memories of my own four years in an all-girls Catholic high school in Detroit. Unlike the seemingly casual fraternizations described by Professor Christine Blasey Ford and apparently permitted by Holton-Arms School, which she attended, the only access to males approved of and permitted by our keen-eyed IHM nuns at Girls’ Catholic Central High School occurred on Prom night. So, let it suffice to say that in addition to rigorous academic studies, the outside pressure of dealing with rowdy teenage boys with raging hormones was not an issue for us. Moreover, “100 kegs”, binge beer drinking, “FFFFFFFourth of July”, “Devil’s Triangle”, or “Boofed” were not words or phrases in our lexicon. Recalling four years of mandatory Latin, however, renews acquaintance with a phrase that came to light during the hearings, thanks to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

“Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus” — which means “false in one thing, false in everything.”

It is a basic principle of the rule of law that a witness who testifies falsely about one matter is not credible to testify about any matter. Shouldn’t this principle be upheld, even more so, as relating to an aspirant for lifetime tenure on the highest court in the nation?