UPDATE: Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed as the next US Supreme Court judge
Controversial Canadian professor and free speech advocate Jordan Peterson has called on Judge Kavanaugh to stand down if he is confirmed to the Supreme Court.
On Saturday (NZ Time) US Senate Republicans, with the support of one Democrat, voted to advance Brett Kavanaugh's nomination as a Supreme Court Justice.
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It follows a turbulent few weeks for the Judge, who faced accusations of sexual assault by Dr Christine Blasey Ford and two other women.
With two formally 'undecided' Senators announcing they would vote for Judge Kavanaugh, the vote is now expected to be 51-49 in support of his nomination.
But Prof Peterson, whose views have received a mixture of praise and scorn, tweeted on Saturday that even if Judge Kavanaugh does receive the Senate's backing, he should stand down.
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He was responding to a thread of tweets by brothers Eric and Bret Weinstein. Prof Bret Weinstein received attention last year after accusing a Washington state University event of limiting free speech on the basis of skin colour. His comments resulted in student protests, and eventually his resignation.
In the thread, Prof Weinstein said any outcome of the Judge Kavanaugh confirmation was "unacceptable".
While he disagreed with people being disgraced by accusations and not facts, he insisted Judge Kavanaugh had a limited point of view, was "the kind of adult that entitled punks grow into" and would undermine the Supreme Court's legitimacy.
Prof Weinstein compared it to the "lose/lose situation" of the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
But Prof Peterson's tweet was criticised by fellow free-speech advocate Stefan Molyneux, who called it "bafflingly incomprehensible".
Other Twitter users were also confused by Prof Peterson's tweet, with some saying he had given into the "mob" he had previously rallied against, and was betraying his belief in free speech and the presumption of innocence.
He later tweeted that he wasn't sure if Judge Kavanaugh standing down was the "right move", but it would allow a "less divisive" figure to gain the nomination.
Prof Peterson shot to fame in 2016 after releasing a series of YouTube videos where he makes remarks about what he calls an increasingly politically correct society.
Among his controversial opinions are the views that women wear makeup in the workplace to be sexually provocative, white privilege is a "Marxist lie" and people shouldn't have to comply with what gender pronouns others wish to be called by.
He has objected specifically to the Canadian government's Bill C-16, which proposed adding "gender identity or expression" as grounds for discrimination.
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