Connecticut leaders are reacting to the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Barrett, 48, was joined in the Rose Garden by her husband and seven children, as guests looked on. If confirmed by the Senate, she would fill the seat vacated by liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsberg, in what would be the sharpest ideological swing since Clarence Thomas replaced Justice Thurgood Marshall nearly three decades ago.
In response to the nomination, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy issued a statement.
“If Trump puts Amy Coney Barrett, his hand-picked nominee, on the court, millions of people I represent in Connecticut will be kicked off their health care plans, in the middle of a global pandemic. This is the catastrophe that will be coming if Coney Barrett, who is being chosen specifically because she will vote to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act, is confirmed. The Republicans have been on a decades-long crusade to dismantle the Affordable Care Act—sending us back to the days when insurance companies could deny you coverage for having a pre-existing condition. Now, a case is pending that will take away health care for millions, and Senate Republicans are predictably reneging on their pledge from four years ago of not appointing a Supreme Court justice during an election year, in order to rush Coney Barrett onto the court in time to end health care for millions."
Attorney General William Tong issued a statement, too.
“There will be heated and contentious debate over the unfairness and hypocrisy of this process, but let us not lose sight for one minute what is at stake. The Office of the Attorney General is actively involved in cases currently before the Supreme Court fighting for Americans with pre-existing conditions like cancer and diabetes, for our clean air and climate, for a woman’s right to privacy in her personal healthcare decisions, and more. All roads lead to the Supreme Court. Amy Coney Barrett, if confirmed, will either protect or dismantle some of the most consequential and fundamental rights enjoyed by Connecticut families today. The stakes could not be higher."
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U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal also released a statement regarding the nomination.
“I will oppose the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, as I would any nominee proposed as part of this illegitimate sham process, barely one month before an election as Americans are already casting their votes. The American people deserve a voice in this hugely consequential decision.”
“Judge Barrett’s views would harm real lives – real people – in real ways, from children with pre-existing conditions to women who just want to be able to decide when and how to have a family. I’m fighting for them.”
“Judge Barrett, like any Trump nominee, has already been vetted and screened to meet two tests: a commitment to striking down the Affordable Care Act and to overturning Roe v. Wade. Judge Barrett has criticized past decisions protecting access to healthcare, shown hostility to reproductive freedoms, and expressed a willingness to overturn settled Supreme Court precedent that does not align with her extreme views. If Judge Barrett’s views become law, hundreds of millions of Americans living with pre-existing conditions would lose access to their health care. In the middle of a global pandemic that has claimed more than two hundred thousand American lives, rushing confirmation of an extreme jurist who will decimate healthcare is unconscionable.”
“I refuse to treat this process as legitimate and will not meet with Judge Barrett.”
She would be the sixth justice on the nine-member court to be appointed by a Republican president, and the third of Trump’s first term in office.
