SCOTUS: Lives On the Line
At the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), we advocate for fair, independent, and qualified judicial nominees who reflect the diversity of our nation throughout the year. It’s no different for our legislative fellows and interns— today’s post comes from Ryan Greenberg, a graduate student at American University and NCJW’s Fall 2020 Government Relations and Advocacy Fellow.
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2020 is one of those years. Those years. Like 1968 or 1989, we’ll see books solely dedicated to the crises of 2020 for generations to come. The Covid-19 pandemic has been the most life-altering and destabilizing event to everyday American life since at least World War II. Gone are the fans at the baseball game or the moviegoers watching the latest Marvel blockbuster. You’ll find them instead awkwardly ignoring the mute button during an important Zoom meeting. This pandemic has defined us this year and its effects will continue to define our country for years to come. Already, 7,000,000 people are infected, 210,000 are dead, and millions are unemployed and have been thrown off their health insurance. This is 2020. This is a crisis. Covid-19 demands action now.
So why has the Senate ignored this issue like a pest? Lord Acton, a British historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, once noted that “[p]ower tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The Supreme Court is about as powerful an institution there is in the American government. Its decisions are the law of the law, providing lasting authority on every issue imaginable — health care, guns, immigration, reproductive rights, labor, voting rights. So, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away in September, filling her vacancy became the priority for the Republican-led Senate. It shouldn’t be.
Providing relief for millions of Americans who are still suffering from the fallout of Covid-19 — including the families and loved ones of the more than 210,000 people who have died as well as the 20 million people who have lost their jobs — requires the full attention of the Senate. People are still out of work, getting sick, and struggling to make ends meet. And, for months, the Senate has refused to pass another Covid-19 package, only to try to rush a Supreme Court nomination before a major election. If the Senate must do anything right now, it’s passing legislation to address the devastating effects of this pandemic and to prepare for a successful recovery.
Indeed, the ramifications are too great to rush through a nominee. On November 10, just one week following election day, the Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Trump administration seeks to strike down the entire ACA and Judge Amy Coney Barrett, their nominee, has been highly critical of the landmark health care legislation in the past. Her nomination threatens Americans’ access to health care in the middle of the current pandemic and economic crisis. Covid-19 is a pre-existing condition. Removing protections for pre-existing conditions and kicking millions off of health insurance is morally indefensible at any time and especially during a generation-defining pandemic.
There is a famous injunction in the Torah: Tzedek, Tzedek, Tirdof, or Justice, Justice, You Shall Pursue. In this era of hyper-partisanship, what does justice look like? Who will live and who will die? At the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), we want a Supreme Court that is just and fair and we will fight for that Court. The attempt to ram through a nominee on to the Supreme Court without appropriate vetting is profoundly unjust and has the potential to impact the lives of every American, resulting in disastrous rulings on health care, reproductive rights, DACA, disability rights, and more. Like Covid-19, it affects all of us.
However, while we can wait until after the election to ensure that a qualified nominee sits on our nation’s highest court for the rest of their life, we can’t afford to wait for Covid-19 to go away. The Senate must act now. It is a matter of life or death.
Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish was that her seat not be filled until the next president is sworn in. Let’s honor her legacy. Contact your senators and tell them to cancel the confirmation hearings instead of rushing through a divisive nominee at the expense of the American people. Send them an email using the NCJW’s Action Alert or give them a call using this script. Do this today, tomorrow, and the day after that (and so on) to ensure that our senators understand that this nomination is a threat to our health care and to our basic civil and human rights. With a dedicated and united response, we can protect our democracy and ensure that our voices are heard.
