President Donald Trump nominated conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States State Supreme Court to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.
Trump made the announced today in the Rose Garden. This nomination comes 38 days before the general election. Both Hawai‘i’s senators Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono released statements indicating they would not support the nomination.
“We are just weeks away from Election Day, but Republicans are rushing to confirm a justice to the Supreme Court before the American people get a chance to make their voices heard,” Schatz stated. “They are hurrying their nominee onto the Court to help overturn the Affordable Care Act, kicking millions off their health care in the middle of the worst public health crisis in a century. With voting already underway, the people should decide who they think should pick our next Supreme Court justice.”
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Instead of wasting time on this partisan confirmation process, Schatz stated, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans should be working to pass a COVID-19 relief package that will help the millions of Americans who are needlessly suffering during this pandemic because of the president’s failed response.
Hirono stated she wouldn’t support Barrett for several reasons.
“She will vote to strike down the Affordable Care Act after being rushed on the Supreme Court in time to hear the case on November 10,” Hirono stated. “Millions of Americans will lose their health care – catastrophic in the middle of a pandemic.”
Barrett, Hirono stated, has a long history of being anti-choice and an explicit willingness to reverse Supreme Court precedent – endangering the protections of Roe v. Wade.
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“A woman’s right to control her own body is at stake,” the senator stated.
The president, Hirono added, expects Barrett to support any challenge he mounts to the election results.
“Senate Republicans have gone back on their word about confirming a Supreme Court justice in an election year and disrespected the final, fervent wish of Justice Ginsburg to not be replaced until a new president is installed,” Hirono stated.
The senator said Barrett’s ideological agenda poses a direct threat to the health care of millions of Americans, a woman’s right to control her body, the rights of LGBTQ Americans, and other individual and civil rights.
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“I oppose her nomination and will fight to deny her a lifetime position on the United States Supreme Court, and in doing so, will tell the American people the danger she poses to hard-won rights,”
In 2017, Hirono opposed Barrett’s nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
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