Leslie Marshall: Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation is proof that we need a Biden victory in 2020
This is why we need Joe Biden and a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate more than ever
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It’s done. Judge Amy Coney Barrett is now a sitting Supreme Court justice. She is the third Supreme Court justice appointed by President Donald J Trump.
For some, her presence on the court is welcome; for others, it’s a nightmare. Conservatives now have a 6-3 bulletproof majority on the Supreme Court.
For those of us on the left, Barrett represents years and years of conservatives trying to control the highest court in the land. And now that she’s been confirmed, she could truly affect millions of Americans in nearly every corner of their lives.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}With a new conservative court in place, it’s possible we could see rights weakened or pushed back to decades in our past. Whether it be women’s reproductive rights, climate change, same-sex marriage, voting rights, immigration, health care or issues surrounding discrimination, the future could make life nearly unbearable for millions of Americans.
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Take health care, for example. There is a new challenge to ObamaCare that the high court will soon hear. In the past, Barrett found fault with court decisions that actually upheld the Affordable Care Act. If Barrett votes in the future in a way that reflects her past criticisms of previous decisions, over 20 million Americans could lose their health insurance and millions with preexisting conditions would have nowhere to go to be insured.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away last month, creating a vacancy on the court, Trump and his Republican posse rushed to fill this seat; doing a 180 from their original stance in 2016 when they drove home the point that the American people should decide who should get to appoint the next justice when a vacancy occurs during a presidential election year.
This is why we need Joe Biden and a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate more than ever.
It is hypocrisy at its finest. They would not consider then-President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland, but now shove Barrett down the throats of both Democrats in the Senate and the American people.
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This is why we need Joe Biden and a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate more than ever.
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Republicans were wrong in 2016 not to seat Garland and they’re wrong now in seating Barrett. If the American people should truly decide, they need to make their decision known (and loudly) at the ballot box on Nov. 3.
Electing Biden would make Trump a one-term president and hopefully prevent any further travesties, as I see this appointment to be, on the Supreme Court.
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Over the next four years there could be more Supreme Court justices retiring. Justice Stephen Breyer is 82 and there are two other justices on the right-leaning court in their 70s. The next president might have the opportunity to fill one, two or even three Supreme Court seats.
In this election, it’s not just essential that the American people vote because the future of Donald Trump is on the ballot, but also because the future of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance and with it, the future of our nation and all Americans’ rights as well.
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