Democrats: Amy Coney Barrett Will Strip Millions of Health Insurance

Their opposition goes beyond the hypocrisy of nominating someone just before the election.

President Donald Trump announces Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee at the White House on Saturday. Rod Lamkey/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Saturday, Democrats quickly criticized President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, arguing that her confirmation would put millions of Americans’ health insurance in jeopardy.

In a statement, former Vice President Joe Biden focused on Coney Barrett’s “written track record of disagreeing with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding the Affordable Care Act.” Her criticism of the decision is particularly important because the court is scheduled to hear a major challenge to the healthcare law the week after the November election.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) put the stakes in stark terms. “If this nominee is confirmed,” Pelosi said in a statement, “millions of families’ health care will be ripped away in the middle of a pandemic that has infected seven million Americans and killed over 200,000 people in our country.”

Beyond healthcare, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote on Twitter that Trump’s pick will cap off a decades-long effort to establish a conservative majority on the court that is favorable to corporate America.

Like other Democrats, Biden stressed that no justice should be confirmed until the results of the election are known. “The United States Constitution was designed to give the voters one chance to have their voice heard on who serves on the Court,” the former vice president said. “That moment is now and their voice should be heard.”

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a statement Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have objected to her potential replacement. “Justice Ginsburg would have dissented against this transparent effort to dismantle Americans’ hard-fought rights,” Leahy said. “And so should we all.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate