This morning, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh begins his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Even if you’ve previously contacted your two senators to oppose Kavanaugh, please call and email again now. Kavanaugh’s confirmation would be a disaster for the separation of church and state, our secular republic and our godless Constitution.
Kavanaugh’s judicial record makes it clear that landmark cases protecting the separation of state and church, as well as reproductive and LGBT rights, are at risk:
- Kavanaugh, a religious Catholic who sends his children to Catholic schools, actively supports taxpayer vouchers for religious schools. His confirmation would ensure six Catholics remain on the 9-seat bench.
- Kavanaugh argues for religious exemptions for employers to deny birth control coverage to female employees. He’s refused to say he supports Roe v. Wade (calling it “settled law” is meaningless). As an appellate judge, he dissented in a decision upholding the right of a 17-year-old undocumented immigrant to end her pregnancy. More than 300 law professors from across the country sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leadership warning the danger that Kavanaugh presents to Roe and urging them not to confirm him.
- Kavanaugh praised former Chief Justice Rehnquist for calling the constitutional concept of a wall between state church “wrong as a matter of law and history.” He would overturn the Lemon Test, which codifies legal precedent against government support of religion.
- Kavanaugh wrote a brief to the Supreme Court in favor of providing religious students with a government megaphone to impose prayer on other students at school events. Kavanaugh used alarming language to deride state/church advocates.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation would shift the Supreme Court to the Religious Right for more than a generation and would forever change the landscape of First Amendment law.
Even if your senators have indicated their plans to support or oppose Kavanaugh, it’s vital that you still contact them today. Your actions are never wasted – Senate offices DO feel the heat when constituents put pressure on them. Please don’t stay silent. The stakes could not be higher.
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