FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 26, 2020
Contact: Juan Ramiro Sarmiento
(785) 760-6567 | juan.sarmiento@younginvincibles.org

Statement on SCOTUS Confirmation

Washington, DC – This evening, eight days before the 2020 Presidential Election, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in a 52-to-48 vote after just 15 days of her nomination. This was the fastest confirmation in U.S. history. Today’s confirmation marks the third Trump appointment to the High Court and cements six of the court’s nine seats in a conservative majority for a generation.

In response, Rachel Fleischer, Executive Director for Young Invincibles, issued the following statement.

“History will not be kind to the United States Senate majority and their actions amid a global pandemic, economic collapse, and nationwide racial unrest. Instead of addressing simultaneous and converging crises confronting the nation, the Senate has moved at an unprecedented and unnecessary speed to fill a Supreme Court seat days before a national election.

The confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett will give conservatives on the Court a six to three majority and the power to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA), criminalize abortion, continue eroding American democracy, dismantle affirmative action, narrow immigrant rights, and rollback hard-fought L.G.B.T.Q. rights. These decisions have the potential to fundamentally set back our nation into a far less healthy, fair, and just society.

Over 130 million Americans with a pre-existing condition would lose protection from discrimination, and over 23 million would lose their health coverage altogether. Nearly every American would be impacted if the ACA was struck down, and the entire health care system would be thrown into chaos. Criminalizing abortion would create two health care standards in this country – one where wealthy people can continue to access reproductive health care, and another where young, low-income, and people of color are left without options for safe, legal abortion.

In the long term, young people will bear the brunt of this lifetime appointment and the resulting conservative majority for decades to come. But on the third of November, young people will rise to the occasion and vote in record numbers to ensure our nation has a fighting chance.”

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