Good morning, Activists ~
We know you are all mourning the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It’s a crushing blow to lose such a giant of the Court, a lawyer who made revolutionary women’s rights law as the general counsel of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, and a role model for our children and grandchildren.
Mourn we must. And then we must act to honor her life and immeasurable legacy.
So what do we do? We WORK. RBG worked tirelessly all her professional life for our rights. So it doesn’t seem like too much to ask of us to work in her honor for the next six weeks to redeem the values of our country.
BUT we can take a break for a few minutes today and each day the rest of this week, and make calls and send emails to our senators. Remember that for over a year Mitch McConnell held open the seat left vacant by the death of Antonin Scalia. And Pat Toomey wholeheartedly supported that position. You can read his February 2016 statement at the end of this newsletter. Read his statement below before making the calls. It's motivating.
We have to block everything Republicans try to do to get this nomination confirmed, starting with calls and emails today. We will tell you more about a statewide effort later this week.
Sen. Toomey – Phila office 215-241-1090; D.C. office 202-224-4254; email link
Sen. Casey – Phila office 215-405-9660; D.C. office 202-224-6324; email link
Call our Senators now and demand they REFUSE to consider any Supreme Court Justice until the new president is inaugurated. The American people deserve to have their voice heard in what could shift the courts irreparably for our lifetimes. Tell Sen. Toomey that you demand he live up to his statement on February 15, 2016, and refuse to consider any Supreme Court justice until after the January inauguration.
Don’t want to make calls? Or send and email? Then donate like your life depends on it. The career and lives of your daughters might. The health of your loved ones might. The workplace conditions of you and your family might. The stakes in this election got higher Friday night, as if they weren’t already high enough.
Donate to the Biden-Harris campaign here. Donate in honor of RBG to Indivisible’s Payback Project, created to unseat Republican Senators in vulnerable seats. Read the seats on that list here.
And speaking of Susan Collins, sign up to make calls TONIGHT to voters in Maine as part of the Payback Project –
Sign up here for 6:00 pm tonight: Call voters in Maine for Biden and Senate candidate Sara Gideon, running against Susan Collins.
And sign up for more actions here --
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February 15, 2016 – Senator Pat Toomey’s Statement
Washington, D.C. – Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) released the following statement on the Supreme Court vacancy created by the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia.
"I have long stated my belief that objective qualifications and adherence to the rule of law should matter more than ideology when it comes to judicial appointments. I have acted accordingly, working closely with Senator Bob Casey on filling 16 vacancies on the federal bench in Pennsylvania and supporting numerous appointments by President Obama, including his appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
“The current vacancy on the Supreme Court, following the tragic death of Justice Antonin Scalia, however, presents an unusual context. In the final year of a presidency, it is common for vacancies that arise on the Supreme Court to await the outcome of the next election. Given that we are already well into the presidential election process and that the Supreme Court appointment is for a lifetime, it makes sense to give the American people a more direct say in this critical decision. The next Court appointment should be made by the newly-elected president. If that new president is not a member of my party, I will take the same objective non-partisan approach to that nominee as I have always done.
“President Obama insists that he will nominate someone for the Court. He certainly has the authority to do so. But let's be clear – his nominee will be rejected by the Senate. In addition to the normally high level of scrutiny accorded to a Supreme Court nominee, this nominee would have to pass an additional level of scrutiny, which is the question of whether he or she ought to receive a lifetime appointment this year, when one could be made with a broad public stamp of approval less than a year later. That is a standard no nominee is likely to be able to meet.
“It has been less than 72 hours since Justice Scalia's passing. There has already been too much politicking around the issue of his replacement. This decision should not be rushed, and it should not be made amid the clamoring of a presidential election season. We should honor Justice Scalia's legacy, and we should put off a decision on his replacement until the newly-elected president can make his or her choice.”
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