Over 17,000 Coloradan Signatures Delivered To Senator Cory Gardner Calling On Him To Delay SCOTUS Vote

 

DENVER, CO — Today, the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountain, the Colorado AFL-CIO, and the Colorado Sierra Club delivered 17,026 petition signatures to Senator Cory Gardner demanding he vote no on the nomination of Donald Trump’s extreme Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. More than 3.2 million signatures were collected nationwide, the most ever in opposition to a Supreme Court nominee. 

 

More than 220,000 Americans -- including over 2,000 Coloradans -- have died since the COVID-19 pandemic began, yet Senate Republicans have blocked a relief package for more than five months and instead put their time and energy to a sham Supreme Court process. A recent poll found that 74 percent of American voters want the Senate to prioritize COVID relief over confirming Trump’s Supreme Court pick. 

 

“Barrett’s rulings as a lower court judge demonstrate a clear disdain for workers’ rights.  Her confirmation would push the most corporate friendly Supreme Court in history even further in its contempt for everyday people. She sided with a business that denied overtime wages in violation of federal law. She sided with a business that segregated employees by race, in what one other judge called a “Separate but equal” policy.  She sided with a business that discriminated against older workers, saying that legal protections did not apply to job applicants.  These rulings go against the core values of the CO AFL-CIO and undermine the work our organization has been doing for years," said Josette Jaramillo, President of the Colorado AFL-CIO.

 

“The rushed and blatantly partisan confirmation process for Amy Coney Barrett is an attack on Coloradans’ access to health care,” said Adam Fox, Deputy Director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. “This is a poorly disguised attempt to pack the court ahead of oral arguments in the lawsuit manufactured to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act after Republicans failed multiple times to do so legislatively in 2017. Some 600,000 Coloradans accessing health care directly through the ACA and over 2 million who rely on pre-existing condition protections are under imminent threat from this court case. A vote by any Senator to confirm Barrett can be interpreted as no less than voting to strip millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Coloradans of their health care in the middle of a pandemic.” 

 

“With climate-fueled fires still burning in Colorado, and over 89,000 Coloradans infected by COVID-19, Amy Coney Barrett repeatedly refusing to accept climate science further proves that she is unfit to serve on the Supreme Court,” said Alexis Schwartz, a Sierra Club Colorado Political Organizer. “Senator Cory Gardner is busy engaging in the frantic act of political theater and desperate power grab, by rushing Barrett’s confirmation vote in a last-gasp effort to pack the Supreme Court ahead of the election. Today, over 17,000 Coloradans have spoken: It’s time for Senator Cory Gardner to prioritize Coloradan families instead of pressing forward with this sham Supreme Court nomination.”

Mitch McConnell has scheduled a final vote on Barrett’s confirmation on Monday, October 26. There has never been a Supreme Court nominee voted on -- let alone confirmed -- this close to a presidential election. In 2016, Mitch McConnell set the precedent for delaying a vote on a Supreme Court confirmation vote in an election year when he blocked President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, for more than 11 months. 

Read the Sierra Club Letter Opposing Amy Coney Barrett