First the Corporate Cabinet, Now Neil Gorsuch

Trump’s cabinet nominees have been a gift to big corporations at the expense of people’s safety and the safety of our food and water. It’s no surprise that he’s made another appointment against the best interests of the American people: Judge Neil Gorsuch as our potential newest Supreme Court justice. But unlike Trump’s cabinet, Gorsuch’s position would be his for life – and that’s a cause for serious concern.

As a judge, Gorsuch has ruled against the fundamental rights of Americans on a host of issues, from worker protections, to educational access for people with disabilities, to dismissing victims of police brutality and women’s reproductive health. We’re concerned about his positions on the environment, too. His mother, Anne Gorsuch, led the EPA under President Reagan and wreaked havoc on our environmental protections through budget-slashing and rolling back regulations, and while he hasn’t often ruled on environmental issues, the prospect that he might follow in his mother’s footsteps is alarming.

If he’s confirmed to the Supreme Court, we can expect Gorsuch to continue limiting our ability to regulate corporations. He believes that politically appointed judges should have more power than federal agencies in determining how to implement the laws passed by Congress. Think about that: he wants our public health and the environment to be in the hands of judges (like him) instead of the agencies that are charged with protecting us. He would have judges decide whether the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and our nation’s other environmental laws will actually protect you from polluting corporations. This is a position so conservative that even Justice Antonin Scalia didn’t support it.

Let’s also not forget that this appointment should never have been Trump’s to make in the first place, because the Senate refused to confirm President Obama’s nominee for Justice Scalia’s seat last year. Senator Merkley (D-Ore) put it best: “This is a stolen seat. This is the first time a Senate majority has stolen a seat.” This highly conservative choice is yet another example of the Trump Administration’s contempt for democracy and fairness. And if Gorsuch is confirmed, we could be looking at four decades of Supreme Court decisions that strip away the fundamental rights of all Americans.

We need to block Gorsuch’s appointment in the Senate. Tell your senators to oppose Gorsuch and refuse to approve any such irresponsible candidate for the Supreme Court.