A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
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Friend,

Welcome to the third of our weekly “Trumptastrophe” email series, that
will serve to remind us all of the destructive policies, decisions, and
actions we encountered during the Trump presidency and the threats that he
and others in the MAGA movement still pose – and to keep those moments
clear in our memory as we fight to defeat Republican extremists during the
upcoming elections.

This week’s recap is a bit longer, but it’s an important overview of the
enormous harm Trump has caused to the federal judiciary’s ability to
protect our rights – including the Supreme Court:

On Sept. 26, 2020, President Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to
the U.S. Supreme Court in a pre-election rush to fill the vacancy created
by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg less than 10 days earlier.  In
doing so, Trump replaced a legendary champion of women’s equality and
bodily autonomy with an [ [link removed] ]ideologue committed to dismantling Ginsburg’s
legacy.

People For the American Way’s [ [link removed] ]evaluation of Barrett’s record as a
federal judge concluded that she had been “a reliable vote to deny people
their legal rights in areas such as health care, racial equity, criminal
justice, immigrants’ rights, and the rights of working people.”

Barrett’s rushed confirmation by the Republican-led Senate days before
Americans voted to remove Trump from office was proof of Republican
leaders’ contempt for democracy and their view of the Court as purely an
instrument of political power. Four years earlier, Republican senators
refused to even consider President Barack Obama’s nomination to fill the
vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death for an entire year, giving
Trump a chance to start his term with a Supreme Court nomination.

Barrett’s nomination, Trump’s third, allowed him make good on his promise
to religious-right leaders in 2016, when he made a deal to win their
support. Put me in the White House, he said, and I’ll give you a Supreme
Court that will overturn Roe v. Wade. That was Amy Coney Barrett’s
[ [link removed] ]assignment, one for which some religious-right [ [link removed] ]leaders [ [link removed] ]insisted
that she was [ [link removed] ]anointed by [ [link removed] ]God, and one which she carried out, voting
to open the door to today’s efforts to criminalize abortion across the
country.

The White House event at which Barrett’s nomination was announced became
notorious for spreading the COVID-19 virus among attendees, but the harm
caused by her nomination and confirmation will certainly be broader and
longer lasting.

Here’s what the Amy Coney Barrett nomination reminds us of the threat
still posed by Trump:

* Trump is proud of the right-wing Supreme Court majority he solidified.
At religious-right political events this year he has bragged that his
nominations gave anti-choice forces a victory that they had been
seeking for 50 years. Anti-equality groups are now scheming to give
the Trump court a chance to [ [link removed] ]overturn marriage equality and other
rulings recognizing the rights of LGBTQ Americans. Christian
nationalists are gearing up to “[ [link removed] ]go on the offense” with new efforts
to further weaken separation of church and state.
* The same religious-right groups Trump is counting on to help him get
elected are now scheming to erect an explicit religious test for
future Supreme Court nominees. In a plot [ [link removed] ]exposed by People For the
American Way’s Right Wing Watch, the American Family Association and
other religious-right groups are working to tank the potential
nominations of any right-wing judge who doesn’t meet their standard
for holding a “biblical worldview.”
* The Trump takeover of the Supreme Court has emboldened right-wing
political groups, who are now preparing to [ [link removed] ]take over the rest of
the federal government if Trump or another Republican wins the White
House. The “2025 Project” being led by the Heritage Foundation is
putting a plan in place to help Trump purge the civil service of
anyone not considered a MAGA loyalist, and to turn the Justice
Department and FBI into weapons for his personal vendettas.
* Trump turned over selection of judges to right-wing groups, who used
him to fill the lower courts with hard-right activists, often
unqualified, who have been wreaking havoc with rulings that ignore
legal precedent and [ [link removed] ]opinions that read more like far-right rants.
Giving Trump four more years to fill the courts with such judges would
go a long way to fulfilling the [ [link removed] ]right-wing movement’s dream of
[ [link removed] ]repealing the New Deal and [ [link removed] ]rolling back more than a
[ [link removed] ]century of progress.

These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this
fight. So, find your
favorite way to unwind after reading through that brief recollection of
“this week in the Trump presidency,” and then make a plan for how you will
fight back THIS week, this MONTH, this election cycle.

You can also take action – right now – to help rebalance and restore
integrity to our federal courts:

* [ [link removed] ]Sign our petition to the White House urging President Biden to put
forward fair-minded nominees to fill existing judicial vacancies >>
* [ [link removed] ]And urge the Senate to give swift and fair confirmation to all of
President Biden’s existing judicial nominees! >>

[ [link removed] ]And of course, if you’d like to opt-out of this series but still
continue receiving our other email content, you can do so here >>

Thanks for all that you do to defeat Republican extremism.

– People For the American Way

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Thanks for your support.

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