Community News
Queens Democrats
say ‘no’ to SCOTUS
22 JULY 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
Photo via twitter.com/@WhiteHouse
nomination
BY JENNA BAGCAL
WITH REPORTING BY ROBERT
POZARYCK
Not surprisingly, President Donald
Trump's selection of Brett Kavanaugh
as the newest member of the United
States Supreme Court is an unpopular
choice among Queens Democrats.
In a televised broadcast on July 9,
the president picked Kavanaugh to fill
the SCOTUS seat left being vacated
this month by retiring Justice Anthony
Kennedy. At the press conference
announcing his decision, Trump cited
Kavanaugh's "impeccable creden-tials,
unsurpassed qualifications and
a proven commitment to equal justice
under the law" as some of his reasons
for choosing him.
But Democrats from Queens and
other parts of New York have called
Trump's pick "irresponsible" and some
have made plans to protest his deci-sion
that they say would endanger
the rights of women and the LGBTQ
community.
“Brett Kavanaugh’s backwards
thinking and irresponsible decisions
on a host of issues — from a woman’s
right to choose, to gun control, to im-migration,
to the environment — make
clear that he would be a dangerous
addition to the Supreme Court. His
nomination must be defeated," said
state Senator Michael Gianaris in a
July 9 statement.
State Senator Jose Peralta said
that the president is "an attempt to
bring us back in time and reverse all
the progress we have made in the last
decade." Following the announcement,
the senator said that he would call for
a special session in Albany to codify
Roe v. Wade — the 1973 Supreme
Court decision that legalized abortion
nationwide — in New York.
"Here in New York, it is crucial that
we codify Roe v. Wade and protect a
woman’s right to choose as well as
access to safe and affordable contra-ception.
This is why I am calling for a
special session in Albany to ensure we
do just that. In addition, I want to thank
Governor Andrew Cuomo for signing
an executive order to protect abortion
rights. It’s a good step, but we need a
special session to guarantee women’s
rights in New York,” Peralta said.
Other Democrats have taken swift
action after yesterday's SCOTUS an-nouncement.
On July 10, a statement
from gubernatorial candidate Cyn-thia
Nixon said that she would be
holding a rally that afternoon to save
Roe v. Wade in Manhattan's Union
Square South. Nixon rallied along with
#VOTEPROCHOICE co-founder Heidi
Sieck, state Senate Democratic can-didates
Jessica Ramos, Alessandra
Biaggi, Rachel May, Jasi Robinson
and Julie Goldberg, and other pro-choice
activists.
Though he has not taken an of-ficial
stance for or against Roe v.
Wade, Kavanaugh has been criticized
for his dissent on a ruling from a
Washington, D.C., circuit court last
October. The case involved an un-documented
teenage girl in deten-tion
who was seeking the right to
an abortion. "The government has
permissible interests in favoring fetal
life, protecting the best interests of
a minor, and refraining from facili-tating
abortion. The Supreme Court
has repeatedly held that the govern-ment
may further those interests
so long as it does not impose an
undue burden on a woman seeking
an abortion," said Kavanaugh in his
dissent on the ruling.
The Republicans control 51 of the
senate's 100 seats, while Demo-crats
have 49. Kavanaugh's bid for
Supreme Court Justice must be
confirmed by a majority vote. Sen-ate
Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell
— who refused to consider a
previous president's Supreme Court
justice nominee in the final year of
that president's term — called for
Kavanaugh's confirmation process
to move forward "fairly."
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