A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
[link removed]
***********************

Friend,

Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” email series that serves to remind
us 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 Trumptastrophe focuses on former President Trump and the Far
Right’s ongoing efforts to appoint MAGA ideologues to the federal
judiciary who will uphold their extreme and unpopular agenda:

On June 15, 2017, Trump and “[ [link removed] ]a who’s who of the Washington conservative
legal establishment” attended a [ [link removed] ]traditional “[ [link removed] ]formal investiture
ceremony” for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who had actually
[ [link removed] ]joined the court and begun work after his Senate confirmation two
months earlier.

Trump’s attendance at the ceremonial event was a reminder of the corrupt
process that allowed him to start putting his stamp on the Supreme Court.
The Gorsuch nomination was made possible by then-Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell’s willingness to abuse his power to prevent the Senate
from even considering President Barack Obama’s nominee to fill the vacancy
created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

The right-wing legal movement spent tens of millions of dollars supporting
McConnell’s unprincipled obstruction and then promoting Gorsuch’s
confirmation. The nomination was shepherded by Leonard Leo, chief
architect of and fundraiser for the Federalist Society’s long campaign to
achieve ideological domination over the federal courts. (Leo, whose
secretive and [ [link removed] ]shady network of nonprofits and corporate entities
controls well [ [link removed] ]over a billion dollars, is now determined to do to the
rest of our society and culture what he has done to the Supreme Court.)

Religious-right groups [ [link removed] ]celebrated Gorsuch’s confirmation as a [ [link removed] ]key to
achieving their policy goals, which included overturning Roe v. Wade,
further weakening the separation of church and state, and reversing court
decisions favoring equality for LGBTQ people.  In the same month as
Gorsuch’s investiture ceremony, religious-right activists at the Faith and
Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference heard MAGA Republican
officials dreamily imagining the kind of “epic, titanic shifts” that
future Trump justices could enable.

Of course, Gorsuch was only the first of three Trump nominees who
solidified the right-wing Supreme Court majority that gave religious-right
groups their fondest wish—the obliteration of Roe v. Wade as a stepping
stone to a complete national ban on abortion. The Trump court has also
advanced Christian nationalists’ goal of steadily dismantling the wall of
separation between church and state, and has [ [link removed] ]further undermined the
Voting Rights Act, worker rights, environmental protection, and more.

While Gorsuch joining the Court heralded the increasingly tight grip of
its right-wing majority, he has sometimes disappointed his supporters, as
when he joined the 2020 Bostock decision holding that civil rights laws
prohibiting job discrimination on the basis of sex apply to discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Gorsuch’s break
with the Far Right in that decision is one reason religious-right leaders
are backing a push by the American Family Association’s Center for
Judicial Renewal to ensure that only the most reliably far-right judges
are considered for the Supreme Court by Trump or any other future
Republican president.

Right Wing Watch [ [link removed] ]reported last fall that the Center for Judicial
Renewal was lobbying Republican presidential candidates and senators to
consider [ [link removed] ]only potential justices who meet the CJR’s “biblical
worldview” standard—an explicit religious test that violates both the
letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution. Just recently, Right Wing
Watch [ [link removed] ]reported that the Center is now hoping to expand its
research—and blacklisting of conservative judges who don’t meet their
religious standards—to nominees for the lower courts as well.

Trump’s justices and hundreds of lower court nominees—many of them
unqualified or more accurately described as ideological warriors than
judges—have [ [link removed] ]undermined Americans’ basic rights and freedoms as well as
the government’s ability to protect our health, safety, and communities
from corporate wrongdoing.

In contrast, President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees have been
phenomenally well qualified as well as historically diverse personally and
professionally. They have demonstrated a commitment to fair courts that
uphold justice for everyone, not just the wealthy and powerful. As People
For the American Way President Svante Myrick noted in [ [link removed] ]an op
ed commemorating the 70th anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of
Education ruling this month, Biden-nominated judges are often quietly
holding the line against discrimination and injustice. And Supreme Court
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has been a brilliant addition to the Court
who has already established herself as a clear and principled voice in
opposition to the ideologues of the court’s right-wing majority.

Trump got elected in 2016 in good measure based on the overwhelming
support he received from white evangelicals, whose leaders rallied around
Trump’s promise to give them a Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v.
Wade. In his bid to return to power in this year’s elections, Trump is
counting on even more overwhelming support and turnout from conservative
evangelicals, and is actively courting white Christian nationalist
leaders, who will certainly expect him to once again turn their priorities
into government policy.

Anti-choice, anti-equality, and anti-government groups are going all-out
for Trump in 2024 because they want hundreds of ideologically committed
federal judges and justices to serve as [ [link removed] ]judicial shock troops that
will empower them to carry out their ambitious political goals of
[ [link removed] ]repealing the New Deal and reversing [ [link removed] ]more than a century of
progress on LGBTQ equality, voting rights, health care, environmental
protection and more.

Federal elections are about many things at once; this year they are
emphatically about the future of the courts, and therefore the future of
justice in our country. To strengthen our resolve in defeating MAGA
Republicans this November and restoring balance and integrity to our
judiciary, [ [link removed] ]sign People For’s new “Vote the Courts” pledge to help
demonstrate your commitment to ensuring principled and fair-minded judges
sit on our courts. >>

These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this
fight. So, find your
favorite way to unwind after reading through this week’s recap, and then
make a plan for how you will fight back this week, this month, this
election cycle.

For members who are interested in sharing the weekly Trumptastrophe
series, [ [link removed] ]you can find all previous editions on our website! This post
will be published by Thursday so you can share with your friends and
family and remind them of the importance of ensuring that Trump is
defeated again this November.

[ [link removed] ]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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ [link removed] ]DONATE NOW

 

 

 


***********************

Do not reply directly to this e-mail. Please use [email protected].

Trouble viewing the email?
VIEW AS WEB PAGE:
[link removed]

This email was sent to [email protected]. Reaching you over email
is the best way we have to let you know about the ways you can take
action to fight the Right Wing and defend our constitutional rights
and values. If you have any thoughts, comments, or criticisms, or if
there's a better email address at which to reach you, please
let us know. If you'd like to unsubscribe from our list, you
can do that here:

You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]
. But know that if you leave, it will be harder for you to stay involved with People For the American Way and continue our
crucial work. PFAW is able to win policy battles and elections, and
counter the Right's extremism and hate, because of dedicated
activists like you, and we're always eager to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for your support.

[link removed]

CONTACT:
[link removed]

PRIVACY POLICY:
[link removed]

FACEBOOK:
[link removed]

TWITTER:
[link removed]

YOUTUBE:
[link removed]

1101 15th Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx-5002,
202-467-4999

You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]