Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I am rising today at a very important time for our country because who sits on the Supreme Court matters. It really matters. From healthcare to civil rights, to the safety of the air we breathe and the water we drink, to the ability to raise our families and pursue the American dream, to the very health of our democracy, decisions made by the Supreme Court affect us every single day.

As my colleagues know, I was born in Michigan. I have lived in Michigan my whole life. My whole family is still in Michigan. I am so grateful for that. Every decision I make in the U.S. Senate puts the people of Michigan first. My decision to oppose Judge Brett Kavanaugh is no exception.

The allegations that have been made against Judge Kavanaugh deserve to be taken extremely seriously. Even before the allegations came to light, Judge Kavanaugh's record and his writings too often have gone against what is best for Michigan families.

When confronted with cases that have special interests on one side and people on the other side, he has consistently sided with the special interests. That is certainly true when it comes to healthcare. Healthcare isn't political; it is personal for every single one of us. Michigan families know what they need: quality, affordable healthcare, including prescription drugs, and Michigan women deserve to make their own reproductive health decisions.

Right now, a court case is pending in which the Trump administration is refusing to defend the law that protects people with preexisting conditions--people like Amy, a small business owner with chronic leukemia, and Louisa, a beautiful little girl born with half a heart. Half of Michigan families include someone with a preexisting condition, like high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma, diabetes, cancer. They deserve to know that healthcare will be there when they need it.

Yet, if this case were to come before the U.S. Supreme Court and if Judge Kavanaugh were a member, I believe many families in Michigan would find themselves with no coverage and no care. We need judges who will make decisions based on what is best for people--not drug companies, not insurance companies, but for people.

A second issue on the minds of our families is our water and the Great Lakes, just like the people of Flint who still struggle with lead in their water. Ask the people in at least 15 Michigan communities whose water is contaminated with what we now call PFAS chemicals. That is an industrial chemical that has been linked to cancer and other diseases. Again and again, Judge Kavanaugh has ruled on behalf of polluters, not people.

In one case, he argued that the Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its authority by trying to address pollution from one State that drifted into another State--as if somehow the air was going to stop at the border. Thankfully, the Supreme Court voted 6 to 2 to overturn his decision. What would happen to our air and water if he is one of the people who is deciding this, particularly if he were to be the tie vote?

Third, I am deeply concerned by his belief in essentially unlimited Presidential power. In 2016, when asked what single case he would like to see overturned, Judge Kavanaugh said he would like to ``put the final nail'' in a three-decades-old Supreme Court decision that said independent counsels investigating the President are constitutional.

Judge Kavanaugh has also written that if a President doesn't like the law, he can simply decide it is unconstitutional. He can simply refuse to enforce it. That might be how things work in Russia, in North Korea, and in Syria. It is not how things are supposed to work in America under our democracy.

We have three separate branches of government. We need judges who will ensure that no one--no one, not even the President of the United States--is above the law.

Also, Judge Kavanaugh's views on what we now call dark money in our elections also concerns me greatly. In one 2011 case, Judge Kavanaugh ruled that foreign nationals could not campaign for or contribute money to candidates. That sounds good. Unfortunately, he then went on to say that foreign nationals can take part in issue advocacy--giving money for issue advocacy in American elections. In other words, Russians can contribute as much as they want to an issue group, which can then spend on behalf of candidates.

In this way, Judge Kavanaugh opened the door for unlimited dark money from foreign nationals--foreign entities in our American elections. Do we imagine he will rule differently from a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court?

Finally, there are the very serious allegations made against Judge Kavanaugh and serious questions about how he has responded to them.

In this country, we have due process. We want accusers to be heard and the accused to be able to defend themselves. That is why it is so important that we heard from both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Ford.

I found Dr. Ford to be highly credible. Her testimony was heart- wrenching. I believe Dr. Ford. Her story resonated with so many women because many of us have felt that same fear and heard the same laughter that she described. It takes an incredible amount of courage to speak up, and I know women across the country are grateful to Dr. Ford for doing so. I am grateful for the countless women who have called or written me with their stories of what has happened to them, oftentimes decades ago. I hope we are going to come to a point when all of this is over and use this as an opportunity to make sure that when something happens, women feel they can report it immediately and will be taken seriously, and we will have a due process system that works immediately to address these issues.

I reviewed the FBI background file on Judge Kavanaugh. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed in the very limited scope. It did nothing to alleviate my concerns about the allegations, his truthfulness before the Senate Judiciary Committee, or his suitability to sit on the Supreme Court.

Judge Kavanaugh's demeanor during the hearing was a shocking display of entitlement. No one is promised a Supreme Court seat or entitled to a job interview. There are many people qualified to hold that kind of a position. But his sense of entitlement and condescension toward members of the Senate committee who were simply doing their jobs was shocking to me.

Again, no one is owed a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. We are talking about a lifetime appointment and an immense amount of power over people's lives.

Someone once said this: ``The Supreme Court must never be viewed as a partisan institution. The Justices on the Supreme Court do not sit on opposite sides of an aisle. They do not caucus in separate rooms.''

That person was Brett Kavanaugh. He clearly has failed to meet his own standard. I know he has failed to meet mine.

The people of Michigan deserve better. The people of America deserve better. They deserve someone on the Supreme Court who understands their lives and will stand up for them, not special interests.

They deserve someone on the Supreme Court who understands that nobody--not even the President of the United States--is above the law.

They deserve someone on the Supreme Court who will work to keep dark money from foreign entities out of our elections.

And they deserve someone on the Supreme Court who has consistently lived up to the high standards we ought to demand of our Nation's leaders.

In Michigan, we teach our children that character matters. Now it is time to show that we mean it.

I urge my colleagues to vote no on Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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