End Citizens United and Let America Vote Action Fund led a letter signed by twenty-seven other groups to Chairman Lindsey Graham and Ranking Member Diane Feinstein of the Senate Judiciary Committee outlining their opposition to Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States. The groups cite Coney Barrett’s dismal record on voting rights and money in politics as a disqualifier to sit on the highest Court in the country. That record was further reinforced by Coney Barrett’s refusal to answer any questions about voting rights and election integrity.
Excerpt from the letter:
Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s record demonstrates that she will join her conservative colleagues in their push to undermine voting rights and the regulation of political spending. She began her career clerking for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, and said they shared the same “judicial philosophy.” That judicial philosophy includes Justice Scalia’s twenty-five year fight against sensible limits on money in politics, cumulating in his defense of the Citizens United decision by equating unlimited political contributions as a form “corporate speech” that we should “celebrate” rather than “exclude or impede.” It also includes Justice Scalia–as part of his argument to dismantle the Voting Rights Act–alleging the fact that the Act had long had widespread support in Congress as “very likely attributable, to a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement.”
As a Judge, Barrett has done her best to uphold Justice Scalia’s judicial philosophy when it comes to favoring powerful special interests over essential civil rights protections. In a dissent just last year, Judge Barrett suggested that the right to vote was not an “individual” right, and said “that felons could be disqualified from exercising certain rights—like the rights to vote and serve on juries—because these rights belonged only to virtuous citizens.” In her short period on the Seventh Circuit, Judge Barrett has consistently ruled in favor of the wealthy and powerful over the rights of everyday people, and has been unusually frank in her support for overturning precedents. In fact, Judge Barrett sided with corporations over the people 76% of the time on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, in 44 of 55 cases reviewed.
Click here to read the full letter.
The letter was signed by the following groups:
End Citizens United / Let America Vote Action Fund
American Atheists
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
Black Lives Matter PAC
Center for Science and Democracy – Union of Concerned Scientists
Clean Elections Texas
DemCast USA
Democratic Policy Center
Equality California
Equality North Carolina
Fix Democracy First
Government Information Watch
Greenpeace USA
Indivisible
Jobs to Move America
National Council of Jewish Women
National Equality Action Team (NEAT)
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Oil Change International
People’s Parity Project
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Silver State Equality-Nevada
Stand Up America
Step Forward Strategies
The Womxn Project
Voices for Progress
Women Lawyers On Guard Action Network, Inc.
Woodhull Freedom Foundation
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