Blumenthal on the Senate Floor: We Must Honor Justice Ginsburg's Dying Wish & Fight for a Fair Process to Give Next President a Choice in Supreme Court Justice

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke on the Senate Floor on Tuesday night, calling on the Trump administration and the Republican Senate to honor Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish to not be replaced until the next president is installed. Blumenthal committed to fight Republican efforts to rush through a nominee who would decimate health care and reproductive rights for Americans in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 Americans.

“The administration and the Republican majority, instead of dealing with this pandemic, are rushing to approve a nominee who would decimate protection for reproductive rights, and there will be real consequences for real people, as there are in many other rights that would be at stake and at risk – voting rights, marriage equality, gun violence protections, civil rights and civil liberties, protection against gender discrimination. But the threat to protection from preexisting conditions like cancer, substance abuse disorder, diabetes, kidney disease, Parkinson’s or pregnancy – and now for an increasing number of Americans, COVID – is most striking,” said Blumenthal.

“We must fight for a process that is fair and gives the next president and the next Senate the choice about the next Supreme Court Justice. That was Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dying wish. We should fight for that principle because it is a matter of fairness. It is a matter of people keeping their word,” Blumenthal continued. “So we need to fight and make sure that the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is upheld, that these constitutional principles that matter in the real lives of real people are upheld, and we cannot give up. And her memory should always inspire us.”

The full text of Blumenthal remarks, as delivered, is available below.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm really delighted and honored to follow my great colleague from neighboring Rhode Island after that feisty, fighting speech, which also captured the spirit of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was deeply concerned about the corrupting impact of money on our political system. She was a long-standing critic of Citizens United. The Supreme Court decision that opened the way for that dark money that has so corrupted our system. She was a believer in closing the gaps and loopholes because she was smart enough and curious enough to learn what the real facts are, as opposed to her colleagues on the Supreme Court who relied on the shibboleth and stereotypes of the political system that were outdated even when Citizens United was adopted. We live in a democracy that is threatened by exactly that dark money in every sphere of the public square and public office, and never more than in our judicial system because it is even less visible and more easily disguised. In part, the reason is that people pay less attention to it. Another reason may be that the amounts of money by comparison seem smaller. The amounts of 100 millions of dollars seem small compared to the billions involved in legislative or executive races, but Ruth Bader Ginsburg knew the power of the dollar, whether it is judicial selection or legislative campaigns can be deeply corrupted on a system that lacks limits. So I thank my colleague from Rhode Island for reminding us about part of the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which was to stand for principle and people.

The constitutional principles that animated her whole life and gave breath to her matchless advocacy. The sense of righteousness that could capture attention in a courtroom even though it seemed to be surrounded by technical legal language. She made that language accessible to everyday Americans and she chose her plaintiffs wisely when she was arguing a case or mounting against gender discrimination, she chose a male plaintiff who was denied social security simply because his wife, a woman, was the one in the military. And she knew the power of hard work. Her work ethic was second to none. But her commitment to her family and most especially to her husband, Marty, also a brilliant lawyer, a wonderful, warm human being, was legendary.

I was really privileged and honored to know Justice Ginsburg casually and informally. I knew her warmth and compassion and caring, sometimes through her law clerks or other friends. And I was also privileged to argue three cases before her on the United States Supreme Court. I argued four as Attorney General of Connecticut. And I can tell you that I feared nobody more on that court because her incisive, piercing, penetrating questions cut to the core of the issue, and sometimes they actually could rescue an arguer from a rabbit hole that some other justice drew the plaintiff or defendant, the appellant or appellee down because she would go to the heart of what the case really concerned. She was straight to the point. And that's why straight to the point now, we need to carry on the fight on so many of those principles. Yes, she was an icon. And a giant. She broke barriers, from the classroom to the courtroom. She demonstrated courage and conviction in her career that were unexcelled, but she stood for principle, and that is ultimately her legacy.

Maybe it's no coincidence, a sad and tragic coincidence that this nation has just passed the 200,000 mark in the number of Americans who have died from COVID-19. That number is due to the administration's callous indifference to science, its cruel disregard for human life. Donald Trump's self-absorption has led to countless lies about the dangers of this pandemic. The latest and most outrageous being that it has “affected nobody.” Well, it has affected everyone in this chamber. Think about it for a moment. Every one of you knows someone, has worked with someone, has a loved one or friend who has been affected. A friend of mine whose children grew up playing with mine passed away five days from this virus.

And yet, at this moment when we are threatened with continuing raging pandemic in this country, a persistent public health crisis greater than any in our lifetime, an economic crisis that prevents people from putting food on their family table and small businesses going under. We are going to rush to a nominee who would decimate protection for preexisting conditions. Which, by the way, now include COVID-19 because COVID-19 does great damage, even to survivors' lungs and heart and brains and other organs. It's a preexisting condition, and along with other benefits in the Affordable Care Act like the ability to stay on a parent's coverage for 26 – for a young person up to 26 years old, all will be decimated because the Trump administration is in the Supreme Court and a case that will be argued on November 10 seeking to destroy it. And that protection for preexisting conditions will be gone, in part because this new Justice we know is committed to eliminate it.

How do we know? Because the president himself has said a strong test will be applied. And so those groups like the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation and the other less visible ones who do the vetting and the screening for this administration, the choice has been outsourced to them. Have vetted and screened that short list and every one of them you can bet has passed that test.

And the second part of that test is women's reproductive rights. Donald Trump has said, another part of that, quote-unquote, strong test will be overturning Roe v. Wade. Now, I was a law clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun in the 1974-1975 term right after Roe was decided. So I have lived with the efforts to overturn Roe, I have fought against those efforts, I have seen the campaigns in the state legislatures, and they are even more present and threatening than ever before. The threat to Roe v. Wade is very much with us. In fact, we were concerned even after the last Supreme Court decision on reproductive rights that, in fact, Roe was in danger. Just three months ago, we held our breath waiting for the Supreme Court's decision. In June Medical Services v. Russo, the latest attack on reproductive rights to reach the court because we knew there was more than a chance that the court would strip women – strip away those rights from women across the country. The court on the slimmest of margins upheld Roe, the narrowest of legal reasoning. It was a landmark legal victory against the radical politicians who continue to attack reproductive rights, notwithstanding Roe v. Wade, but those principles of Roe are now in danger than ever before.

And the administration and the Republican majority, instead of dealing with this pandemic, are rushing to approve a nominee who would decimate protection for reproductive rights, and there will be real consequences for real people, as there are in many other rights that would be at stake and at risk – voting rights, marriage equality, gun violence protections, civil rights and civil liberties, protection against gender discrimination. But the threat to protection from preexisting conditions like cancer, substance abuse disorder, diabetes, kidney disease, Parkinson’s or pregnancy – and now for an increasing number of Americans, COVID – is most striking.

An example is Conner from Ridgefield, Connecticut. I have spoken about him previously on the floor. Several years ago, Conner was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It's a degenerative life-threatening disease with no cure. He was 4 years old when it was diagnosed. His parents sought treatment. And learned it would cost tens of thousands of dollars each year, which they couldn't afford, but because of the protection for people who suffer from preexisting conditions, Conner is alive today. Conner is in school. Conner is thriving. Conner is a fighter. Just as Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a fighter. Conner never gave up. Neither did Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Conner endures the harsh reality of physical illness and emotional trauma, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg reached out to people like Conner and offered them hope.

She reached out to women, and she inspired a whole new generation of women, and many of us know them because they are women in our families who decided to pursue a career in law because of her example. She was small in stature, soft of voice, but she packed a powerful punch, even before she was a rock star and a pop icon because she never gave up. She was a fighter. And we cannot give up now.

We must fight for a process that is fair and gives the next president and the next Senate the choice about the next Supreme Court Justice. That was Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dying wish. We should fight for that principle because it is a matter of fairness. It is a matter of people keeping their word. In this place, there are almost no unwritten rules. There are no written rules. There are more unwritten rules, and one of those rules is people keep their word. So we need to fight and make sure that the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is upheld, that these constitutional principles that matter in the real lives of real people are upheld, and we cannot give up. And her memory should always inspire us.

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

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