[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Blumenthal shared the story of Conner, a ten-year-old resident of Ridgefield, Connecticut living with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy – a fatal illness that requires tens of thousands of dollars in medical treatment every year. Conner’s disease is a pre-existing condition, and without the protections of the Affordable Care Act, he could lose access to critical care.

“Conner is a superhero, but he’s always had a real sidekick. He’s had the protection of the Affordable Care Act. It has shielded him and his family from arbitrary caps on coverage that would have cut off his care when it became too expensive. It has protected Conner from losing insurance because of this insidious disease that he never caused or chose. The Affordable Care Act has given his family a measure of relief, of hope, of peace. They still worry about Conner’s health, but not their coverage or its costs,” Blumenthal said.

“Conner, and millions of others like him, are why I will oppose your nomination.”

During his opening statement, Blumenthal also raised concerns regarding Judge Barrett’s position on reproductive rights and gun violence prevention. President Trump vowed he would only nominate Justices to the Supreme Court who would “automatically” overturn Roe v. Wade and when asked directly if he would use support for striking down gun violence prevention measures as a litmus test, he said he would, “give that commitment right now. Absolutely.”

Blumenthal’s remarks as delivered are available below.

Judge Barrett, and to your family, welcome to the Committee.

I want to introduce you to one of my constituents, Conner Curran, of Ridgefield, Connecticut. He’s ten years old, and suffers from Duchenne (due-shen) Muscular Dystrophy. It is a horrendous, incurable disease. It slowly deprives children of their strength and their ability to move. Eventually, it robs them of their lives. The costs of providing Conner’s care are astronomical, but for Conner and his family, it is worth every penny.

Conner is a superhero, but he’s always had a real sidekick. He’s had the protection of the Affordable Care Act. It has shielded him and his family from arbitrary caps on coverage that would have cut off his care when it became too expensive. It has protected Conner from losing insurance because of this insidious disease that he never caused or chose. The Affordable Care Act has given his family a measure of relief, of hope, of peace. They still worry about Conner’s health, but not their coverage or its costs.

Conner, and millions of others like him, are why I will oppose your nomination. Your nomination is about the Republican goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act—the “Obamacare” they seem to detest so much. It’s about people like Conner. Protections for people with pre-existing conditions; tax credits that make health insurance more affordable; bans on charging women more simply because they are women. That’s what my Republican colleagues have been fighting to repeal for the last decade. They voted dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and they have challenged it twice unsuccessfully in the United States Supreme Court.

And each time they failed, but now, just one week after the election, as you know, the fate of the Affordable Care Act will again be in the hands of the United States Supreme Court.

Republicans have turned again to the Court to try to achieve judicially what they cannot achieve legislatively.

President Trump has vowed that any judge he nominated would pass the “very strong test,” his words, and that they would strike down the Affordable Care Act. Judge Barrett, in all honesty, you have auditioned for this job through your academic writing and judicial opinions and you’ve passed that test. In fact, you have stated, twice in effect, that you would have voted to strike down the Affordable Care Act had you been a justice at the time. You’ve been vetted, you’ve been screened by the Trump administration and special interests who want an activist judge. They want someone who will legislate from the bench and strike down laws supported by a vast majority of the American people. And that activism uses originalism as a smokescreen.

If the American people have any doubts about how dedicated my Republican colleagues are to taking away people’s healthcare, just listen to their own words, they’ve been remarkably candid and forthright:

Senator Graham, our Chairman, has said: “You can’t repair this monstrosity called Obamacare. You have to tear it down and start over.”

Senator Ernst has said: “I support immediate action to repeal Obamacare and replace it.”

Senator Cornyn: “It’s time to repeal and replace.”

Senator Tillis: “Repeal Obamacare. Let’s end the disaster.”

And President Trump himself has said: “We want to terminate Obamacare.”

Millions of Americans, more than 130 million, have a pre-existing condition: asthma, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s, pregnancy, and now—by the cruelest of ironies—COVID-19. COVID-19, the cause of this pandemic, now is a preexisting condition that could prevent millions of Americans from being covered by healthcare. Stripping healthcare from millions of Americans during a pandemic: that’s really what is at stake in the Republican lawsuit, now before the Supreme Court, and in this nomination

Sadly, it’s not just the Affordable Care Act that’s at stake. It’s a woman’s right to decide when and how to have a family – control over her own body. An activist judge, on the bench, doing what Congress could not do, would also strike down commonsense gun safety laws. Connecticut has been at the forefront on gun violence protection. On gun safety, Judge, you acknowledged that your dissenting opinion in Kanter “sounds kind of radical”. That’s because it is. But if your views on the Second Amendment are adopted by the Supreme Court, it would imperil commonsense state laws like Connecticut’s all around the country.

Today, we ought to be working on improving American health care. We ought to be fighting COVID-19, which has infected eight million Americans and killed more than two hundred and fifteen thousand. We should be producing a national testing strategy, instituting effective contact tracing, and securing sufficient PPE. We ought to be providing assistance to the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs and faced economic hardship and heartbreak. President Trump has failed to do any of it. Instead, he and our Republicans colleagues are riveted on rushing a judge through this sham process, dropping everything else.

President Trump’s failure to act will likely lead to 55,000 additional deaths – 55,000 additional Americans lost – over just the next three months.

Senate Republicans are refusing to address American health care, or COVID-19, or economic relief because they care more about putting an extremist ideological judge on the bench – and not just on the Supreme Court.

I’ve learned as a Senator is that there are very few written rules in this place. But there is one very important unwritten rule: keep your word. Republicans have all sorts of excuses for why they are breaking their promise. The promised that they would not confirm a Supreme Court Justice during an election year. Each excuse boils down to nothing more than raw political power. They’re doing it because they can. But might does not make right. They have boasted they have the votes, but they don’t have the American people, and they don’t have history on their side. The American want a plan to fight and conquer this disease. They want a plan to put Americans back to work. They want a blueprint for the future, not rolling back rights and turning back the clock.

I revere the Supreme Court. I clerked for Justice Harry Blackmun, I’ve argued cases before the Court four times. Now, I’m really deeply concerned that the Supreme Court is losing the trust and respect of the American people. The authority of the Supreme Court depends on that trust. It has no army or police force to enforce its decisions. The American people follow the Supreme Court’s commands, even when they disagree, because they respect its authority. Now, President Trump and the Republican Senate are eroding, indeed destroying, that legitimacy. They have stripped the American people of their say in this process simply to confirm a justice who will strike down in court – legislate from the bench – what they can’t repeal in Congress. Your participation, let me be very blunt, in any case involving Donald Trump’s election would immediately do explosive, enduring harm to the Court’s legitimacy and to your own credibility. You must commit recuse yourself.

The American people are afraid and they’re angry, and for good reason. It’s a break the glass moment: Americans must use their voices to speak out and stand up—to contact my colleagues on this Committee, despite their boasts about having the votes. Stand up and speak out to protect their own health, public health, and the health of our democracy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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