- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch against taking away “fundamental rights” on abortion.
- Schumer spoke Wednesday at a rally in front of the Supreme Court as justices hear an abortion case.
- “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” Schumer warned.
- Republican Sen. Ben Sasse said “it would be the biggest story not just in Washington but all across America” if a GOP senator said what Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned two Supreme Court justices Wednesday that they “have released the whirlwind” and that they “will pay the price,” adding that they “won’t know what hit you” if they rule the wrong way.
Schumer spoke Wednesday at a rally in front of the United States Supreme Court where justices heard June Medical Services v. Russo, a case in which an abortion provider challenges a 2014 Louisiana state law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges in a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion facility.
Opponents say the law would hinder and potentially eliminate abortion access in Louisiana. Louisiana lawmakers and pro-life activists maintain that the law protects women from unsanitary or unsafe abortion clinic practices.
Both pro-abortion and pro-life activists gathered Wednesday at the Washington, D.C. rally where the New York senator warned Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch against taking away “fundamental rights” related to abortion. (RELATED: This Pro-Life, Female Democrat’s Law Is At The Heart Of Upcoming Supreme Court Abortion Case)
“I want to tell you Gorsuch,” Schumer said, video from the event shows, “and I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price.”
“You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” he added.
The senator’s comments referenced the political price Republicans “will pay for putting them on the court” as well as “a warning that the justices will unleash major grassroots movement on the issue of reproductive rights against the decision,” Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In which Chuck Schumer threatens TWO sitting Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. pic.twitter.com/pA3mryeVK2
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 4, 2020
“Let me ask you my friends, are we going to let Republicans undo a woman’s right to choose,” Schumer asked the crowd. “Are we going to stay quiet as they try to turn back the clock? Are we going to give up or waver when things get tough?”
The pro-abortion activists in the crowd responded to each of these questions with a resounding “No.”
“No, we are going to stand together in one voice and take a stand on behalf of women and families throughout the country,” Schumer said. “We are going to stand against all these attempts to restrict a woman’s right to choose and we will win.”
SCOTUS just heard the 1st big case on a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions since Justices Kavanaugh & Gorsuch
It looks at 1 of 100s of draconian, anti-choice restrictions states tried to pass
We’re here to send a message: Not on our watch! pic.twitter.com/cdjCfe32wi
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 4, 2020
Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse slammed Schumer, saying that Schumer threatened Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
“The Democratic Party is so radicalized on abortion politics that today Chuck Schumer threatened Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh if they didn’t strike down a simple, common-sense, pro-woman law that simply says that abortion doctors need to have admission privileges at a local hospital,” Sasse said in a statement provided to the DCNF.
The Nebraska senator argued that if a Republican threatened Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor or Ginsburg, “it would be the biggest story not just in Washington but all across America.”
“But, Chuck Schumer’s bully tactics aren’t getting much air time right now because there’s so many people in bed with his defense of abortion and his attack on an independent judiciary,” Sasse added. “These bullying tactics need to stop.”
Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino pointed out that less than a month ago, Schumer called on Roberts to condemn President Donald Trump for “publicly attacking a judge.”
“What price will they pay,” questioned Severino, referencing Schumer’s Wednesday comments. “Money? Physical abuse? Threats on their lives? More smear campaigns? If anything happens to Justices Gorsuch or Kavanaugh, we should assume it’s @SenSChumer‘s mafia at work:’Who will rid me of these meddlesome justices?'”
The case marks the first time the Supreme Court has reviewed an abortion case since Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court justice’s confirmation was marked by anxiety from the pro-abortion movement that Kavanaugh would rule favorably for pro-life policies.
He was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford, whose lawyer Debra Katz said Ford’s accusations were motivated by putting “an asterisk next to” Kavanaugh’s name before “he takes a scalpel” to Roe v. Wade.
“In the aftermath of these hearings, I believe that Christine’s testimony brought about more good than the harm misogynist Republicans caused by allowing Kavanaugh on the court,” Katz says in a video exclusively obtained by the DCNF in September 2019.
“He will always have an asterisk next to his name,” Katz continues. “When he takes a scalpel to Roe v. Wade, we will know who he is, we know his character, and we know what motivates him, and that is important; it is important that we know, and that is part of what motivated Christine.”
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