Brown discusses Supreme Court replacement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 18, a vacancy opened in the
United States Supreme Court and debate began on when that vacancy should be filled.
On his Wednesday afternoon conference call, Sen. Sherrod Brown (DOH) fielded questions from reporters about how legislators are planning on handling the timing of the appointment in an election year.
Brown said it’s different this time than it was four years ago when Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, also an election year, and President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland for the vacant position.
“When Scalia, died we were months and months and months before an election. We did not know who the two candidates would be for president of either party at that point,” said Brown. “The court would have had to keep this vacancy open for at least a year which is what it did. Now we know the voting’s already started in North
Carolina, it started in a number of places. It starts next week in Ohio and voters should be able to honor the wishes of Justice Ginsburg.”
Ginsburg served on the court for 27 years.
“She said to her granddaughter that she wished her position be filled based on the outcome of the election and whoever is elected president should get to make that,” said Brown. “There is no comparison between the two and the situations are so markedly different.”
Brown worries that if President Donald Trump nominates a justice then it will be breaking precedent that’s served the United States and its history of presidents.
“The Senate has failed the American public for months in dealing with this crisis with the health care and with the pandemic. Millions of Americans are going to be faced with foreclosure,” said Brown. “That’s no exaggeration. The Senate has failed to put money out to local school districts so they can open safely. Columbus City Schools don’t have the money to open safely while many of the more affluent suburban schools do because (Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump don’t care. So McConnell can’t get around to doing anything, but now he’ll move heaven and earth to move a Supreme Court Justice nominee faster, I believe, than Congress has ever done it.”
With the Republicans holding Senate majority and the president being from the same party, Brown fears that protections will be stripped if they nominate a judge before the election.
“It’s all so McConnell and the Senate can put another pro corporate special interest judge on the Supreme Court knowing that they will take away the protections for pre-existing condition,” said Brown. “Knowing they will overturn Roe v. Wade. Knowing they they will wipe out the Affordable Care Act. Nine hundred thousand Ohioans have insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act and they’re all under threat because Trump and McConnell couldn’t get this done legislatively to wipe out the Affordable
Care Act, but they can do it through the court system and they’re about to do it if this nominee goes through.”
Also Wednesday, Brown announced his office will host a conference that will focus on the social determinants of health. The Black Women’s Health Symposium will be held virtually on Sept. 26 and Oct. 3.
“The best ideas aren’t going to come out of Washington — they’ll come from Black and brown communities who have been living with these inequities and fighting this fight for generations,” said Brown. “This event is part of a commitment to engage with communities that have been silenced for too long and to work together for long-term change.”