Where Brett Kavanaugh Stands on Five Major Feminist Issues
Where Brett Kavanaugh Stands on Five Major Feminist Issues
This post is modified from a letter submitted by the Feminist Majority Foundation to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary leadership. You can read the original letter here http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2018/08/31/letter-in-opposition-to-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh-to-the-supreme-court/.
Nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court must meet the highest standards of character and integrity. The decisions made by the Court impact almost every aspect of our daily lives, and the public must be secure in knowing that the nominee is willing to protect the rights of all people, not just the powerful, and uphold the rule of law.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh does not meet these requirements.
Protestors at a #WeObject rally against Trump’s Supreme Court nominees. (NARAL Pro-Choice America)
Access to Abortion and Birth Control
The right to access a full range of reproductive healthcare services, including abortion and birth control, is central to the lives of millions of women in the United States. The availability of affordable modern contraception has contributed to tremendous gains in women’s educational and economic advancement in the U.S. and has had positive impacts on both infant and maternal health. Birth control has allowed women to participate more fully in the social and economic life of the nation and has given women the ability to more freely determine their destinies by allowing them greater control over whether and when to have a child; access to safe, legal abortion has given women greater ability to make personal life and health decisions that are best for them—and often, their existing families.
. . . . .
Civil Rights and Equitable Workplaces
The Supreme Court plays an essential role in helping to ensure fairness in the workplace—something that is critically important for women, people of color, people with disabilities and LGBTQ individuals, all of whom have been historically marginalized in the public sphere. Kavanaugh’s record, however, reflects hostility toward both workers’ rights and basic civil rights.
Kavanaugh has repeatedly ruled against employees asserting claims of racial discrimination and has tried to make it more difficult for employees to have their cases heard in court. In one case, he would have blocked an African-American women fired from her job from having her day in court; in another, he would have prevented a black Muslim FBI agent of Jamaican descent from pursuing a retaliation claim. Although Kavanaugh has, on occasion, recognized the availability of racial discrimination claims—including in a concurring opinion in which Kavanaugh noted that a single incident of a supervisor calling an employee “the n-word” could create a hostile environment—his record suggests that he has adopted a narrow view of what constitutes racial discrimination that does not reflect the reality of people’s lives.
. . . . .
Civil Rights and Equitable Workplaces
The Supreme Court plays an essential role in helping to ensure fairness in the workplace—something that is critically important for women, people of color, people with disabilities and LGBTQ individuals, all of whom have been historically marginalized in the public sphere. Kavanaugh’s record, however, reflects hostility toward both workers’ rights and basic civil rights.
Kavanaugh has repeatedly ruled against employees asserting claims of racial discrimination and has tried to make it more difficult for employees to have their cases heard in court. In one case, he would have blocked an African-American women fired from her job from having her day in court; in another, he would have prevented a black Muslim FBI agent of Jamaican descent from pursuing a retaliation claim. Although Kavanaugh has, on occasion, recognized the availability of racial discrimination claims—including in a concurring opinion in which Kavanaugh noted that a single incident of a supervisor calling an employee “the n-word” could create a hostile environment—his record suggests that he has adopted a narrow view of what constitutes racial discrimination that does not reflect the reality of people’s lives.
. . . .
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/09/04/whats-stake-brett-kavanaugh-stands-five-major-feminist-issues/