Tell Senator Feinstein - Step Down from leadership in the Senate Judiciary Committee

Senator Dianne Feinstein

SF Office: (415) 393-0707
DC Office: (202) 224-3841
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Call Script

My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.

I am greatly disappointed by your failure to delay, obstruct, and procedurally oppose Barrett's appointment to the Supreme Court. And I condemn your statements praising the committee process and your public embrace of Chairman Lindsey Graham. By doing so, you validated an illegitimate, politically-obscene, and morally-repugnant packing of the Court with ideologically-driven Republican partisans.

For five years, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and the Republican Party have ruthlessly violated Senate rules and norms to politicize the judiciary into a partisan arm that will deny healthcare to millions of Americans, block the environment and safety regulations we need to combat global climate catastrophe, overturn Roe v Wade and a woman's right to control her own body, cripple labor unions, and transform “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people” into authoritarian rule “Of the CEOs, by the lobbyists, for the wealthy.” Enough!

Your actions do not represent me, and I call on you to step down from your leadership role in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Background

When McConnell and the Republican Party blocked President Obama's Supreme Court nominee for almost a year, they argued that voters should be heard before the seat was filled. Now, with utter hypocrisy, they are ramming through an extreme right-wing nominee just weeks before an election. Public opinion is overwhelmingly against this illegitimate confirmation process, and the majority opposes Barrett's political views on everything from a woman's right to control her own body, to climate-change and global-warming, to Trump's refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if the vote goes against him.

Committee Chairman Graham exposed the political goal of this confirmation when he pledged to support Trump's nominee without even knowing who that nominee would be. And as we have seen time and again, Republicans are willing to violate senate rules and norms to impose their will on America, most recently by Graham breaking the quorum rule to ram through a vote on Barrett this coming Thursday.

Yet our two senators continue to do business as usual with decorum and deference to customs and rules that the Republicans ignore whenever it suits their purpose. Neither Harris nor Feinstein raised procedural roadblocks, nor have they adequately fought back against Republican rule-breaking. And Feinstein legitimized the Republican judicial-railroad, after Graham violated the quorum-rule to force a committee confirmation vote, when she publicly praised him by gushing, “This has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in.” Then she actually hugged him (while both were unmasked).

NARAL, MoveOn, Demand Justice, Demand Progress, and other groups, including other Indivisible chapters, are now calling for Feinstein to step down (or be removed) from her leadership position on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The committee vote on the Barrett nomination has now (in violation of the rules) been set for this coming Thursday, 10/22. That is the last opportunity for our senators to use procedural maneuvers to delay the confirmation at the committee level. Once the Republican majority on the committee votes in favor of the nomination, it goes to the Senate floor. If McConnell calls a rare weekend session, as has indicated he will do, the final confirmation vote could be as early as this Monday the 26th. When the nomination reaches the full Senate, our senators can (and must) use parliamentary tools to delay and obstruct the process – just as Republicans did over and over again during the Obama administration.

During the committee hearing -- which was rushed into session before Barrett fully complied with the documents and information that SCOTUS nominees normally provide -- she dodged and evaded all substantive questions about her legal philosophy and opinions. But the pattern of her non-answers made clear that she will:

Kill Obamacare and the protections for pre-existing conditions, along with it;
Overturn Roe v Wade, a woman's right to control her own body;
Fully support the Republican Party in election challenges and restrictions on voting rights;
Restrict or eliminate government authority to regulate corporations in matters of health, safety, environment, consumer protection, and everything else.

She would not even agree that Social Security and Medicare were acceptable under the Constitution.

Trump and his Republican cronies are pushing for a quick confirmation, so they will have a right-wing court to ensure partisan rulings in their favor over every election-issue and voting-challenge that arises on and after November 3rd.

If Republicans succeed in ramming Barrett’s confirmation through the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, the final battle in the full Senate will take place next week – unless Democrats do something to delay it. Though there are no silver bullets that can prevent Republicans from eventually placing this right-wing extremist on the Supreme Court, there are tactics that Democrats could use to delay and obstruct them, possibly even until after the election, which might significantly change the political calculus.

Trump Taps Amy Coney Barrett — Memo Lays Out Tactics for Opposition, Ryan Grim, Intercept

Minority Rules: Ten Ways to Bring the Senate to Its Knees, Center for American Progress.

The Senate Judiciary Committee did not follow its own rules, Sherrilyn Ifil (NAACP Legal Defense Fund)

Why The Amy Coney Barrett Hearings Are Verging On The Absurd, Perry Bacon Jr. (FiveThirtyEight.com)

Feinstein hugs and praises Lindsey Graham, sparking an outcry from liberals: ‘Time to retire,’ Teo Armus (Washington Post)