JAFFEE GOES NATIONAL: Makes Statement in Opposition to Nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court

STATEMENT BY ASSEMBLYWOMAN ELLEN JAFFEE

I stand with Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, and my Democratic colleagues in opposition to President Trump’s discriminatory executive actions and to his nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch, 10th US Circuit Court Justice, to the United States Supreme Court.

Judge Gorsuch’s rulings do not support equality and civil rights for all Americans but rather empower corporations instead of real people. In the federal Hobby Lobby case Judge Gorsuch ruled that some private corporations are “people” and thus have a right to deny employees basic reproductive healthcare coverage if doing so violates the employer’s religious beliefs. And Judge Gorsuch may well favor law and precedent that will undermine or even overturn Roe v Wade.

Furthermore the Republican Senate’s unprecedented and egregious refusal to even consider President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, when the president still had a year left to serve in office is a serious threat to our constitution and to our democracy. The seat vacated by the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia should have been filled, as it has been throughout our nation’s history, by the sitting president, Barrack Obama.

The United States Supreme Court has accelerated this nation’s progress and advanced equality. We cannot risk filling a stolen seat on the Supreme Court with a nominee who will roll back equal rights and the progress we’ve made for generations to come.