Disgraceful Senate Republicans Ignore Voters, Ram Through Unfit Supreme Court Nominee

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Cindy Carr, cindy.carr@sierraclub.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, just days before an election in which more than 61 million Americans have already cast their ballot, the Senate voted along party lines to confirm Donald Trump’s extreme Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. It has been over 150 years since the last Supreme Court nominee was confirmed without any bipartisan support and there has never been a Supreme Court justice confirmed this close to a presidential election. 

More than 225,000 Americans have died since the COVID-19 pandemic began -- including more than 15,000 since Barrett’s nomination was announced. Yet Senate Republicans have continued to block a relief package for more than five months but were able to rush a sham Supreme Court confirmation process in just 30 days. A recent poll found that 74 percent of American voters want the Senate to prioritize COVID relief over confirming Trump’s Supreme Court pick. 

During her confirmation hearings, Barrett refused to acknowledge and accept the reality of the climate crisis, saying she doesn’t think that her “views on global warming or climate change are relevant to the job I would do as a judge” and calling climate change a “very contentious matter of public debate.” The Supreme Court is responsible for bedrock environmental laws like the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Court is already slated to hear at least one case on the climate crisis in the next term.

In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:

"Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Senate Republicans have once again put politics before people in their rush to rig the courts for their dangerous agenda. Whether it's stealing a seat on the Court or dismantling Justice Ginsburg’s legacy, Senate Republicans have made it clear they will stop at nothing and stoop to any level to keep their power. We will not forget the Republican party's disregard for our families next Tuesday or ever.  And the Sierra Club will work to vote out every Senator that rushed to confirm Amy Coney Barrett.”

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Read the Sierra Club’s letter of opposition to Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination here.

Paid for by Sierra Club Independent Action, www.sierraclubindependentaction.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.