27 Groups Demand Schumer Delay SCOTUS Confirmation

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NEW YORK, NY (10/13/2020) (readMedia)-- As the Senate Judiciary Committee continues SCOTUS confirmation hearings, dozens of groups wrote to Senator Schumer to demand he use every tool to halt the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett until after the 2021 presidential inauguration. The groups include Common Cause/NY, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, the Riders Alliance, New York Communities For Change, and many other groups representation elections, healthcare, reproductive justice, housing, LGBTQ and gender justice, education, civil rights, environmental justice, police reform, immigrant and racial justice, and workers rights.

Excerpt from the letter:

"Capitulation by Democratic leadership to a rushed SCOTUS nomination is not acceptable. The consequences are too dire and now, the political uncertainty too great. Senator Schumer, stand firm and we will stand with you. If you need our assistance in this effort, in communicating and mobilizing, we are ready."

Full letter attached and below.

October 12, 2020

Senator Charles Schumer

780 Third Avenue, Suite 2301

New York, NY 10017

Senator Schumer:

We the undersigned New York organizations are united in alarm over the illegitimate rush to force confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee in the U.S. Senate in October.

We represent just a fraction of concerned Americans; be assured that all eyes are on you, and we need you to act. There must be no confirmation before the 2021 presidential inauguration.

The 27 organizations below all work towards equity and justice in many different issue areas –elections, healthcare, reproductive justice, housing, LGBTQ and gender rights, education, civil rights, environmental justice, police reform, immigrant and racial justice, and workers rights.

Every one of the issues to which we are devoted has been addressed, at one time or another, by the U.S. Supreme Court--and will almost certainly be again.

We urge you to expand your playbook and legislative toolkit:

? We urge you to assemble a "war room" of the best legal and political minds to brainstorm a broad and creative plan of strategies both outside and within the Congress.

? We urge you to convene a core team of Democratic Senators ready to take the floor at all times and execute these strategies.

? We urge you to use every possible procedure at your disposal to prevent this nomination from moving forward, including denying unanimous consent, preventing adjournments and other suggestions contained in the attached opinion piece by our colleagues Zephyr Teachout and David Segal that ran in the NY Daily News.

We expect that as the Minority Leader you will bring the full weight of the entire Democratic Caucus to this effort, as well as coordinate with Speaker Pelosi to ensure that any procedural tools available through House action are not overlooked.

A Supreme Court justice rules on life and death issues for millions of Americans.

The illegitimate and hypocritical rush to confirm a nominee before the election is an appalling attempt to weigh the scales against the Affordable Care Act (argument is scheduled for November 10) and the outcome of any 2020 election cases that may go before the Court.

Protect our healthcare. Use your bully pulpit and enlist allies to explain to the public what is at stake in terms of health care coverage, personal bankruptcy due to health bills, and exclusions of preexisting conditions including COVID-19 positivity, from health insurance coverage.

Protect our vote. Voters are currently casting their ballots in an election that is already being heavily litigated, including major election-related cases on which the nominee would potentially have a decisive impact. The rush to confirm Trump's nominee is a blatant attempt to silence the voices and nullify the votes of millions of Americans.

Our concerns have multiplied since learning that the President and possibly others in his administration have contracted COVID. The Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee refuses to be tested for COVID-19 and two additional members have confirmed that they have contracted the virus. This is no time to be rushing through a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

Capitulation by Democratic leadership to a rushed SCOTUS nomination is not acceptable. The consequences are too dire and now, the political uncertainty too great. Senator Schumer, stand firm and we will stand with you. If you need our assistance in this effort, in communicating and mobilizing, we are ready.

No confirmation before inauguration!

Susan Lerner, Executive Director

Common Cause/NY

Maria Quackenbush, co-founder

Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance

Tasha Williams, Pres, Board of Directors

Grassroots Action NY

Jaron Benjamin

Housing Works, Inc.

Jeff Mikkelson

Hudson Valley Demands New York Health

Barbara A Walsh

Hudson Valley Strong Indivisible

Lisa Raymond-Tolan

Indivisible Nation BK

Trish Anderton

Inwood Indivisible

Rachel McCullough

Jews for Racial & Economic Justice

Robert A. K. Gonyo

League of Independent Theater

Lisa Tyson

Long Island Progressive Coalition

Javier Valdes and Deborah Axt (Co-Executive Directors

Make the Road NY

Mark Hannay, Director

Metro New York Health Care for All

John Park

MinKwon Center for Community Action

Melody Lopez

New York Civic Engagement Table

Jonathan Westin

New York Communities For Change

George Albro - Co-Chair New York Progressive Action Network

Jonathan Bix

Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson

Judith Hertzberg

PersistNY

Mark O'Brien

Pro Bono Net

Betsy Plum

Riders Alliance

Brian Romero, President of SDNYC

Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC

Michael Kink, Executive Director

Strong Economy For All Coalition

Michael McKee, Treasurer

Tenants Political Action Committee

Judith Hertzberg

True Blue New York

Rory Betnstein

Water for Grassroots

Karen Watson

WHARR (Womxn's Health and Reproductive Rights)

To keep Barrett off the Supreme Court, Schumer must fight like a defense attorney with a client on death row

By DAVID SEGAL and ZEPHYR TEACHOUT

OCT 01, 2020 AT 5:00 AM

The confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, if it goes through, could mean the end of the Affordable Care Act, same-sex marriage and reproductive rights. To what remains of anti-corruption laws after Citizens United, what remains of gun safety laws, and what remains of the Voting Rights Act. A 6-3 majority led by Chief Justice John Roberts would create a bulletproof hard-right court.

Faced with a moment with apocalyptic implications, leading Democrats fall somewhere on a spectrum that runs from oblivious to resigned. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) wants to appeal to the GOP's "sense of decency" and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) is complaining about procedural maneuvers that could delay the confirmation process.

The person with the power to organize top Democrats to confront this confirmation is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He has the opportunity to be the hero who saves all that Democrats hold dear. As he strives to do so he should seek guidance from a counterintuitive source, one frequently standing just a few feet away: He should do whatever Mitch McConnell would do. We all know that if the roles were reversed, McConnell would do all in his power to whip the Republican Conference into line and slow things down.

One of us was trained as a death penalty lawyer, and learned from the best in the country, heroes who file motion after motion to keep their clients alive. Great death penalty lawyers do not roll over when the odds are high. They don't rely on in-house counsel; they call people in other states pushing for new and creative ideas to keep their clients alive. Delay can mean life: There are thousands of people alive today because determined death penalty lawyers kept their clients alive until there was a moratorium, or the death penalty was ended in their state.

Today, the delay of Barrett's confirmation would give us more reason to hope for the life of our democracy.

A postponement of just a few weeks - until after Election Day - might stop the nomination altogether. If Mark Kelly defeats Martha McSally (R-Az.) in the race to fill the remainder of John McCain's term, then he will be seated right away. Two Republican senators have already indicated they oppose the current hasty process, so just one more would need to defect to get Republicans to wait until after inauguration to move forward.

In other words: A modest deferral could mean that Joe Biden would pick the next Supreme Court justice, and instead of having the court fall into ironclad control by the far-right, we could have a more balanced court.

Immediately after the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we started hearing rumors that Senate Democrats were likely to capitulate with a perfunctory fight. Potential allies on the Hill told us "there's nothing we can do." Public signals were in line with such defeatism, with Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) pooh-poohing the prospect of a meaningful defense, asserting that there was no "triple secret" procedural trick and asking why this would go any differently than the past two confirmations.

Our answer: In 2017 and 2018, Trump wasn't potentially within a few weeks of losing reelection and that Democrats didn't control the House, which can play a part in forcing action in the Senate.

One of us is a former lawmaker who knows those premature assertions of hopelessness are endemic to establishment Democratic politicians. This even passes for savvy: If nothing ever happens, because you convince yourself nothing can be done, then you're never wrong.

During the days after Ginsburg's death, we scrambled to identify a dozen experts who told us the insiders were too pessimistic, and circulated a memo with 19 different ideas of what the Senate could do. We aren't Pollyannish - we know that Republicans have the upper hand - but the prospect of extending the timetable beyond is a procedural possibility.