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A Handful of Senators Hold the Key to the Supreme Court
And we need your help.
Action Needed:
FIRST: Check the list below to see if your Senator is still undecided on the dangerous "nuclear option" that threatens to ensure a right-wing Supreme Court for decades to come.
SECOND: If your Senator is on the list, please take action TODAY by making a simple local phone call. If not, then please look carefully at the list of states, and think of who you might know in those critically important states - and then forward this message to your relatives, friends, college roommates . . . anyone in the target states who may be willing to take action by making a simple phone call.
THIRD: Please send a follow-up email to your senator. Even if you don't live in a targeted state, you can still send a message to your senators urging them to stand up for our courts by protecting the filibuster.
Why is This Action So Urgent?
A very few Senators hold in their hands the power to stop the right wing takeover of the federal court system - and particularly the Supreme Court - by religious and political extremists.
Voters from their home states must reach out to those Senators who are not yet in the clutches of the extremists, and urge them to reject procedural shenanigans (also known as the "nuclear option" and preserve the Senate's right to "advise and consent" on lifetime judicial appointments.
Here are the key states:
Alaska
Arkansas
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Iowa
Louisiana
Maine
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Montana
Nebraska
North Dakota
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota
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If you live in one of these states, Take Action NOW
If not, forward this message to your friends and family who reside in one of these states.
Background:
Do not be confused by the hype. All the talk about changing Senate rules has nothing to do with the nominee being considered at the time - as loathsome as that individual may be - and has everything to do with clearing an easy path for the next Clarence Thomas or Antonin Scalia to sit on the Supreme Court.
The debate around arcane Senate procedures is just an underhanded way for the Republicans to change the confirmation rules for lifetime appointments in midstream. Although the Senate has confirmed more than 200 Bush judicial nominees, the administration is sulking and wants the rules changed so that all of their nominees are rubberstamped, without serious examination of their records. We have witnessed a parade of nominated judges whose records demonstrate that they would turn their backs on abortion rights, civil rights, disability rights, privacy rights, and the environment and we have spent a lot of time contesting each nominee on the merits.
However, in constantly fighting these individual battles we risk missing the forest for the trees. What really is at stake is not whether one judge or another sits on the bench (although certainly each one of these judges could do a world of damage) but what is ultimately at stake is our rights and the rights of our daughters.
If we do not stop this juggernaut, generations of women will be at risk. If we allow the right wing to re-write the rules of business so that each of their nominees is a slam dunk, we have lost far more than any election or legislative battle. Because it will make the Supreme Court nominees a slam dunk as well.
For us and our children the fallout will be unthinkable.
Take Action NOW
In order for their scheme to be successful, Republican strategists must maintain all of their troops in lockstep. Five Republican defections will thwart their plan. Some Republican Senators understand that their party will not always be in power, and that one day they would regret stripping the Senate of its true Constitutional Advice and Consent function. These are the Senators we must reach and persuade.
If you live in one of these states we are depending on you to let your Senator know that as a constituent you want them to respect and support the Senate rules that allow filibusters. For those of us living in a state not on this list, think of who you know in those states and forward this message to them and then send an email to your own senators. We have a chance to stop this right wing plan in its tracks. We need your help immediately. There is not a moment to waste.
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