Democrats urge Breyer to leave SCOTUS while left has Senate majority
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley says Justice Breyer has not indicated he will step down from the Supreme Court.
Senate Democrats repeatedly claimed that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett would strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — also known as Obamacare — if she was confirmed, but those predictions were proven false on Thursday.
Barrett voted with the majority in a 7-2 decision to uphold Obamacare on Thursday.
SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS OBAMACARE LAW, DISMISSING CHALLENGE FROM RED STATES
Thursday’s ruling proved wrong several prominent Democratic senators who insisted that Barrett would kill Obamacare.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., claimed in a press release that “a vote by any Senator for Judge Amy Coney Barrett is a vote to strike down the Affordable Care Act and eliminate protections for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions.”
When asked for comment on his previous statements Thursday, Schumer’s office pointed to a press release that praised the court’s decision but didn’t mention Barrett or his previous claims about the justice.
DEM SENATOR CALLS BARRETT A ‘JUDICIAL TORPEDO’ AIMED AT OBAMACARE DURING CONFIRMATION HEARING
Schumer wasn’t the only member of Democratic leadership to take a shot at Barrett — Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Md., claimed in an interview last year that the then-nominee was on an “assignment” by Trump to get rid of Obamacare.
“I asked her, not some deep, legal, philosophical questions, Durbin said of his meeting with Barrett. “We just chatted for a minute, and I really wanted to try to understand her experience as a person when it came to health care because she is being sent on assignment to the Supreme Court by President Trump.”
“And we know what that assignment is, eliminate the Affordable Care Act,” he added.
On the first day of Barrett’s confirmation hearings, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., referred to her as a “judicial torpedo” aimed at destroying Obamacare.
SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH CATHOLIC FOSTER AGENCY THAT EXCLUDES SAME-SEX COUPLES IN 9-0 RULING
“This Supreme Court nominee has signaled in the judicial equivalent of all caps that she believes the Affordable Care Act must go, and that the precedent protecting the ACA doesn’t matter,” Whitehouse said. He claimed that the “influences behind this unseemly rush see this nominee as a judicial torpedo they are firing at the ACA.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, claimed in an interview during Barrett’s confirmation hearings that Republicans “want her on that court to hear the Affordable Care Act case… so that she can strike it down.”
“This nominee poses a clear and present danger, an immediate danger, to the healthcare of over 20 million Americans who have healthcare thanks to the Affordable Care Act,” Hirono also said about Barrett in the interview.
Former Democratic presidential candidate and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren claimed that Barrett would “work to gut” the ACA and called Barrett a “right-wing ideologue who does not represent the majority of Americans.”
Additionally, Senator Bob Casey, D-Penn., indicated in a speech on the Senate floor that Barrett’s nomination was being “fast-tracked” due to the Obamacare case.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“This nominee is being fast-tracked, first of all, because this nominee has been vetted by the two groups that matter: the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation,” Casey said. “Both groups totally committed to undoing, striking down the Affordable Care Act.”
“So she’s already passed that test, and she apparently passed with flying colors as she moved very quickly to a likely confirmation,” Casey added.
With the exception of Schumer, none of the senators’ offices had returned Fox News request for comment at publishing.
Comments