'You have the power': Kamala Harris urges voters to oppose Trump, Senate GOP over Supreme Court nominee
Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, urged voters Monday to rally against President Donald Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court nominee as a threat to health care and reproductive rights, and vote against Republicans in the coming election.
Harris, D-Calif., implored voters to pay attention to the voting on Trump's nominee, federal appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett, because she could help overturn the life's work of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for equal rights. Harris argued that Barrett would work to overturn the Affordable Care Act and an earlier high court decision that established a right to abortion.
Both parties are using Barrett's nomination to rally support. The Republican-controlled Senate is expected to be able to confirm Barrett. Harris, a member of the Judiciary Committee, didn't talk about ways to prevent Barrett's confirmation during the 19-minute speech at Shaw University, a historically Black college in Raleigh, N.C.
But Harris said voters should understand what Barrett's ascension to the court would mean to current law and legal precedent, and use it as a rallying cry against Trump and Republican members of the Senate on Nov. 3.
“We will not let the infection that President Trump has injected into the presidency and into Congress, that has paralyzed our politics and pitted Americans against each other, spread to the United States Supreme Court," Harris said. “This election is about our democracy."
Ginsburg, 87, died Sept. 18. Trump nominated Barrett, 48, who serves on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and teaches at the University of Notre Dame, on Saturday.
The Judiciary Committee scheduled Barrett's confirmation hearing to begin Oct. 12 and it is expected to last several days with opening statements from senators, questions and testimony from experts. Trump has urged the Senate to confirm Barrett before the Nov. 3 election.
“They just want to jam this nomination through as fast as they can," Harris said. "It’s called raw power. But President Trump and his party are about to learn something. They may think that it is they who have the power in this country, but they don’t. The American people are the ones who have the power. You have the power."
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, and other critics have warned that Barrett could vote on the high court to overturn the Affordable Care Act, which is nicknamed Obamacare, and the decision called Roe v. Wade that established a right to abortion.
Barrett has said she would follow the Constitution and not legislate from the bench. She has criticized Chief Justice John Roberts' decision upholding the Affordable Care Act and the court's earlier decision in Roe v. Wade.
Trump told a Pennsylvania rally Saturday that Barrett would uphold "God-given rights."
Harris said no other decision would dishonor and disrespect Ginsburg's legacy than overturning Roe v. Wade. Harris said striking down the Affordable Care Act could jeopardize health insurance for 20 million people who participate in the program and for 100 million with pre-existing conditions who were assured of coverage under the law.
Harris also argued that voting rights could be at stake with Barrett on the high court, after she said the court in 2013 "gutted the heart of the Voting Rights Act." She said Texas, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi each adopted discriminatory laws to suppress the vote after that decision.
“Vote as if your life, your choice depends on it – because it does," Harris said. “He knows he can’t win if the people vote. Donald Trump is weak so he is throwing up every roadblock he can to try to suppress the vote. We the people cannot let him get away with it.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris urges voters to oppose Trump over Supreme Court nominee
