Supreme Court Appointee

Example Letter 1

(added 28 January, 2017)

[your address] [date]

Dear [name]:

President Trump is about to nominate someone to fill Antonin Scalia's Supreme Court seat. Trump has promised he will nominate someone ready to follow in Scalia's extremist footsteps, which could guarantee another generation under a conservative Supreme Court that wages war on women, workers, poor people, voting rights and the environment while giving unprecedented power to corporations and religious extremists.

Senate Democratic Leader Schumer and his colleagues have the power to block Trump’s nominee. This power must be used to make sure they use it to stand up for women, LGBTQ people, immigrants, Muslims, people of color, workers, the environment and the bedrock principles of our democracy.

Please tell Leader Schumer and all Senate Democrats: Block any Supreme Court nominee who won’t stand up for progressive values and the people most vulnerable.

Senate Democrats are our only firewall against a Supreme Court shaped by a corrupt president committed to a racist, xenophobic and misogynistic agenda. Leader Schumer has promised not to consider any nominee who is not “mainstream,” but he has so far not clarified what “mainstream” means. It’s a dangerous position and one we have to push back on now. Already, Maryland Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin has already said he’d consider a “mainstream conservative” nominee.1 And even though we’re barely into the Trump administration, there’s already ample, and disappointing, evidence that other Democratic Senators may be willing to “work with” Trump or support his nominees.

Please remember that a judge in Scalia’s model, who would go along with the extremism of the Roberts’ court, would:

• Restrict a woman’s right to reproductive health care, including abortions;
• Curb the government’s ability to fight climate change;
• Further undermine the Voting Rights Act and give a green light to voter suppression;
• Give corporations unchecked political power and unchecked power over consumers and workers;
• Discriminate against LGBTQ people, especially transgendered people; and
• Block gun control legislation.

There’s nothing mainstream about this agenda that puts millions of people, our democracy and our entire planet at risk. Please tell Leader Schumer and all Senate Democrats to block any Supreme Court nominee who won’t stand up for progressive values and the people most threatened by Trump’s dangerous agenda.

With Trump in the White House and Republicans in both houses of Congress ready to run the table on their extremist agenda, the fight against a Trump Supreme Court could not be more important. There is no reason Senate Democrats should consider the path of compromise when Republicans spent almost a year blocking President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

Republicans were willing to trash the decorum and customs of the Senate, ignore their constitutional duties and undermine the legitimacy of our country’s first Black president for naked partisan political gain. We should be able to count on Democrats to be fierce, relentless and uncompromising in their defense of those most threatened by Trump and our democracy as a whole.

Sen. Schumer and every single member of his Senate Democratic Caucus must hold the line in this fight. 

Thank you for your time and kind consideration. 

Sincerely, [your name]