(Image source from: Star Tribune)

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has persistently said he was legally permitted to consume beer as a prep school senior in Maryland. Actually, he was never legal in high school since the state's drinking legal age rose to 21 at the end of his junior year, while he was still 17.

Kavanaugh's imbibing has come under intense investigation after California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that to a great extent drunk Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were both teenagers at a Maryland house party during the summertime of 1982.

The legal age in that state was raised to 21 on July 1, 1982; Kavanaugh did not turn 18 until February 12, 1983.

In a Fox News interview on Monday, Kavanaugh said, "Yes, there were parties. And the drinking age was 18. And yes, the seniors were legal."

In testimony on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he said all of his statements during the Fox interview were precise and could be made part of the record.

Pressed at the hearing about his drinking habits in high school, he over again claimed he had not broken the law.

"Yes, we drank beer, my friends and I, boys and girls. Yes, we drank beer. I liked beer. I still like the beer," he said. "The drinking age as I noted was 18, so the seniors were legal. Senior year in high school, people were legal to drink."

Kavanaugh, at another point, who has denied all of Ford's accusations, stated accurately that the imbibing age had been 18 in Maryland for "most" of his time period in high school, but the age limit had been at 21 for over seven months ahead his 18th birthday.

While he admitted in his congressional testimony that there were probably occasions during his time at Georgetown Prep in Maryland that he had consumed "too many beers," a combative Kavanaugh contradicted he had ever gotten uncontrollable or acted inappropriately toward women.

"I liked beer. I still like beer. But I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone," Kavanaugh said.

There was a grandfather clause in the Maryland law, but solely for those who were 18, 19 or 20 on the day the increase went into the result, thereby not incorporating Kavanaugh.

According to numerous eyewitness accounts, alcoholic consumption by Kavanaugh as well would have been illegal during notorious Beach Week, an annual trip to the Eastern Shore that involved heavy drinking.

Kavanaugh could legally drink in nearby Washington D.C., for the concluding five months of senior high school. The drinking age there did not increase to 21 from 18 until 1986.

By Sowmya Sangam