Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is “a judicial torpedo” aimed at protections provided by the Affordable Care Act.
Whitehouse and other Democrats argued Monday at Barrett’s confirmation hearing that the Affordable Care Act is at serious risk if Barrett is confirmed to the high court. The court is set to hear a major challenge to the law on Nov. 10, a week after the presidential election.
Whitehouse says the nation is in the midst of a “relentless” health care crisis that the Trump administration has “botched.” He notes former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “hadn’t been buried when the president and Senate Republicans celebrated Barrett’s nomination at the White House super-spreader event,” when a number of White House aides and others were likely infected with the coronavirus.
Whitehouse says Barrett “has signaled in the judicial equivalent of all-caps that she believes the ACA must go.″
Republicans want Barrett confirmed before the election.
