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WASHINGTON – Congressman Paul D. Tonko responded to President Trump’s announcement tonight that he will nominate ideologically conservative Brett Kavanaugh for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“President Trump’s announcement tonight shows a clear intent to pack the court with extremists to support his hateful policies and to insulate himself from legal accountability in the process,” said Tonko. “Republicans stonewalled Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination for more than a year, arguing that the people have a right to be heard on such a consequential lifetime appointment. Now, with just four months until the midterm elections, Republican leaders are ignoring their own precedent and the cries of the American people demanding protection from a hostile ideological takeover.”

Tonko also raised concerns over Kavanaugh’s record of expressly ideological rulings and apparent appetite for disregarding settled law for political purposes, including expected participation in the President’s campaign pledge to devolve women’s healthcare and reproductive rights and undermine healthcare security, environmental protections, the rights of workers to bargain collectively, the voting rights of all Americans and the rights of states to adopt laws to prevent gun violence:

“We have long upheld the rights of workers to join together to bargain for better wages and working conditions, the rights of women to make their own healthcare and reproductive choices, the rights of voters to express themselves through elections, and the rights of states to step up when Congress fails on issues such as gun violence prevention and environmental protections,” added Tonko. “We also believe as a nation that healthcare is a fundamental right for all Americans. Yet in recent months, the increasingly ideological Supreme Court has eroded many of these rights. If the President’s latest nominee is approved by the Senate, his push for an extreme and at times un-American agenda will only accelerate.”

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