Statement from Demos President Heather McGhee on Senate Rule Change

April 6, 2017 (New York, NY) –Heather McGhee, President of Demos, released the following statement after the Senate changed the rules in order to confirm Judge Gorsuch to a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court:

“After their unprecedented refusal to even hold a hearing on Judge Garland’s nomination, today, Senate Republicans led by Leader McConnell blew up the rules of the Senate in order to jam through President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court.

“Judge Gorsuch is a judicial extremist who may now have a decisive vote on whose voices carry weight in our democracy. The very shape of our democracy is at stake: the way we make decisions about everything from who gets health care to whether working families will live in poverty—and whose voices are heard in that process.

“Further, this nomination comes during a time of grave uncertainty over the legitimacy of Trump’s administration. This should have been enough to halt this critical process in order to ensure that our democracy has not been compromised.

“As the FBI and two congressional committees continue their investigations into the Trump administration and its associates' involvement with Russian officials’ interference in the 2016 presidential election, the U.S. Senate should not have moved forward with Judge Gorsuch’s nomination until a full investigation had been conducted, and should certainly not have ‘gone nuclear’ to push through a lifetime appointment of a president whose legitimacy is subject to serious questions.

“Republicans’ choice to ram through Trump’s Supreme Court pick today was a victory for big money and corporate power, and a sad day for American democracy.”

Heather McGhee’s full Senate Judiciary Committee testimony submitted for the record can be found here. For Demos’ report: Court Cash, which quantified for the first time the direct impact of four of the Supreme Court’s significant money in politics cases on 2016 election spending, see here. For Demos’ fact sheet on Judge Gorsuch’s record on money in politics, please see here. For an FAQ on the role of the Supreme Court and money in politics, here. For a racial equity analysis of money in politics and the Supreme Court, here.

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