Dylon Harrison

Managing Editor

There are a lot of words that could be used to describe the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court eight days before the conclusion of the 2020 presidential election. The two that seem to keep coming to mind are disgusting and horrifying.

I genuinely don’t know where to begin in explaining just how wrong it is, but here we go. 

For starters, it is an absolute disgrace to the legacy of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. RBG dedicated her life to serving our country and making it a better place. Her dying wish was for her replacement to be nominated by the winner of the 2020 election. After everything she did for this country, she deserved to have that wish respected.

For the Republican-controlled Senate to push Barrett’s confirmation through so close to the election is deplorable at best. The pure hypocrisy of it is mind-blowing. Let us not forget that in 2016, the Senate, under the control of the same Senate Majority Leader, refused to allow for even a hearing of President Obama’s SCOTUS nominee, who was nominated nine months before the 2016 election.

I will not be using the name of this Senate Majority Leader. As far as I am concerned, he doesn’t deserve it. However, I do think that it is worth pointing out that he himself said in February of 2016, “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

Again, this was said at the beginning of February, almost nine months before the 2016 election. Apparently, these words were ever only going to ring true when it was beneficial to the Republican Party.

The Senate Majority Leader is not the only member of this hypocritical party to have made such a statement during the 2016 election. Many other Republican senators made similar claims and even told the American people to use their words against them if a SCOTUS vacancy appeared during an election year with a sitting Republican president. Each of them voted to confirm Barrett.

It is time to begin holding our elected officials accountable for their words and actions. They work for us. They need our vote to stay in office. Going forward, we must show them that we will not stand for this sort of blatant hypocrisy. 

We won’t stand for a party stealing the right of the American people to have a voice in who sits in a lifetime appointment to the highest court in our country, and we will not stand for the utter disrespect thrown upon the legacy of an American hero just days after their death.

Not to mention, Barrett is dangerously under-qualified to serve on the Supreme Court. Not only has she only been a judge for three years and has never tried a case in her life, but her judgment can clearly be seen as unsound by the circumstances surrounding the announcement of her nomination.

The party at the White House celebrating her nomination turned out to be a super spreader event for COVID-19, resulting in many people contracting the virus. One of these people was the very president who nominated her. He will also remain unnamed in this piece, as I think he is even less deserving of recognition than the previously mentioned Senate Majority Leader.

We are now faced with a SCOTUS that is set to overturn so many critical decisions that were made during RBG’s time on the bench, and many people are now looking at the very real possibility that their rights may soon be stripped away.

Women, members of the LGBTQ community, racial minorities and those with preexisting conditions are now in danger of losing civic protections that were so hard-won.

I, and I’m sure all of you as well, have many loved ones that fall into at least one of these categories. They’re terrified. I’m terrified for them. Barrett’s appointment threatens to return America back to life not unlike that before the civil rights movement.

We, as Americans, can not allow for this to happen. We have to use our voices. We have to get involved in any way that we can.

I know that by the time this column is published, the election will be over. Regardless of its outcome, the fight continues. Marginalized members of our community need our help now more than ever.

As of right now, I don’t know who will be sworn into office come January, but for the sake of those I love, I hope it is Joe Biden.

If it is, we need him to expand the Supreme Court. That is the only way that we can ensure that the Court’s current conservative majority does not get the chance to strip rights away from our fellow Americans.

If Biden is not the winner, remember to be there for each other. Use whatever voice you have to speak out for what is right. Remember your rights and to defend the rights of those around you.

The future is in our hands.