NCLEJ Condemns Confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court
Yesterday, just over a month after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and just days before the election, President Trump and his allies in the Senate forced through Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. NCLEJ condemns Justice Barrett’s confirmation, and the process through which her confirmation has taken place.
In the weeks since Justice Ginsburg’s death, workers, families, and small businesses have continued to suffer in the absence of meaningful pandemic relief. The President himself, along with many of his close associates, have themselves been diagnosed with coronavirus, and tens of thousands more people died of COVID-19. The pandemic and its economic impacts have continued to have a disproportionate impact on Black and brown communities. Health care workers have continued to do their jobs without sufficient personal protective equipment. In the middle of an unmanaged pandemic, natural disasters have struck in the form of fires and tropical storms.
Instead of taking action to address any of these monumental problems, the White House and the Senate, led by Mitch McConnell, have single-mindedly pursued one goal—elevating Justice Barrett to the Supreme Court. Unknown numbers of people risked exposure to COVID-19 as an outbreak swept through national Republican leadership, not to provide desperately needed support to communities across the country, but to replace Justice Ginsburg with a judge who poses an existential threat to the very people the White House and the Senate currently fail to serve, including people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, low wage workers, LGBT+ communities, and women. And, perhaps most urgently, millions of Americans have already cast their votes in this year’s election. Millions more will do the same over the next week. Justice Barrett—a Trump nominee, who has been rushed onto the bench with insufficient scrutiny, in defiance of standards first articulated by Senator McConnell himself—will sit on the Court that resolves any election related disputes. Her confirmation thus presents a grave threat to the integrity of our electoral and judicial process.
