By naming Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, Donald Trump has set the table for a vote on repealing Roe v. Wade. That was the promise Trump made during the presidential campaign. In his final debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump said the Supreme Court would “automatically” overturn Roe once he became president, “because I am putting pro-life judges on the Court.”
Trump outsourced his Supreme Court nomination screening process to the radical Federalist Society, a group started during the Reagan era to move U.S. courts to the right. Its leader, right-wing activist Leonard Leo, has called abortion “a threat to human life,” and conservative activist Ed Whelan has said, “No one has been more dedicated to the enterprise of building a Supreme Court that will overturn Roe v. Wade than the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo.”
Now, Leo, the Federalist Society and the network of anti-abortion extremists, billionaires and committees have gotten their wish. After pushing Neil Gorsuch to the top of the pile last year, they are gearing up for a repeat performance now.
We can’t let them succeed. Mitch McConnell stole a Supreme Court seat by refusing to consider Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, and now Senate Republicans are at it again. We are on the threshold of the most consequential Congressional elections in modern times. Voters are going to the polls to express their views on who should be setting the agenda in Congress and whose values should be reflected on the bench. We call on the Senate to refuse to take up this nomination until the people they represent have voiced their opinions.