Supreme Court Confirmation is Stealing the Future of Generations to Come

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nancy Rodriguez media@acslaw.org

Washington, DC – American Constitution Society President Russ Feingold, who as a U.S. Senator served 16 years on the Judiciary Committee, released the following statement today, on the eve of the Senate beginning hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

“Tomorrow the Senate will proceed forward with its ill-advised and illegitimate plan to seat yet another extremely conservative Supreme Court justice who, if confirmed, will allow them to achieve the Right’s ultimate goal: locking down a reactionary supermajority on the Court that could endure for a generation.

By capturing the court, the Right hopes it will effectively steal the future of the younger generation – and generations to come. This generation, unlike others before it, will not get the opportunity to forge its own way, and make manifest the promises, realized and yet to be realized, in our Constitution. Their future will have been bought by an alliance of billionaires, a revanchist political movement and right-wing and corporate interests. If the Right were to succeed, it would be a tragedy.

But, of course, they will not. They will not, because the law students and junior lawyers who fill the ranks of the American Constitution Society’s over 200 chapters nationwide, will not let them succeed. They tell me every day that they are going to fight for their future, and win.

Soon enough, the Right will have cause to realize that its fantasy of a docile population content to be governed by a council of judicial overlords acting on behalf of a privileged minority cannot be sustained. And it is dangerous, for our courts, and our democracy. Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are playing with fire, and it is the American people who could get burned.”

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AMERICAN CONSTITUTION SOCIETY
ACS believes that the Constitution is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” We interpret the Constitution based on its text and against the backdrop of history and lived experience. Through a diverse nationwide network of progressive lawyers, law students, judges, scholars, and many others, we work to uphold the Constitution in the 21st Century by ensuring that law is a force for protecting our democracy and the public interest and for improving people’s lives. For more information, visit us at www.acslaw.org or on Twitter at @acslaw