The following is an e-mail that Senator Elizabeth Warren sent to her supporters:If you’re wondering how much damage Republican extremists can do through the federal judiciary, just look at three issues bubbling up through the courts right now:
One: This week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on what should be an open-and-shut case — whether President Biden has the legal authority to cancel student debt.
Spoiler alert: He does. Congress wrote it into the HEROES Act, clear as day, that presidents can cancel student debt to respond to major emergencies. Like, oh, let’s say a global pandemic. Donald Trump used the same power when he was president, and we didn’t hear a single peep from any right-wing politicians or judges that it could be illegal. But now that President Biden’s trying to wield that authority to help working-class and middle-class people, GOP elected officials and billionaire-funded interests are suing to stop it.
So I elevated stories that illuminate how student debt relief is clearly targeted to help people who are struggling financially from the pandemic. And I went to the Supreme Court steps on the day of oral arguments to say that the justices need to get out of the way, not play politics, and apply the law. As long as they do that, tens of millions of Americans will get some or all of their student debt canceled. But no matter what, I’m staying in the fight.
Two: The Supreme Court announced that they’ll consider whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is constitutional.
Spoiler alert: It is. Year after year, corporate interests have funded desperate lawsuit after desperate lawsuit challenging the CFPB’s structure. All because they don’t want a strong watchdog keeping them from cheating working families. But in case after case, the corporate interests have failed. This one should be no exception.
But if the Court ignores over a century of law and historical precedent, and if extreme right-wing justices decide to play politics and rule against the CFPB, it would throw our economy into chaos.
You know, the CFPB has already put more than $12 BILLION back in the pockets of people who got cheated by financial institutions. That gives greedy corporations more than 12 billion reasons to stop the CFPB in its tracks. But it also gives us more than 12 billion reasons to fight back.
Alongside this grassroots team and a terrific array of labor unions, civil rights groups, consumer advocates, and more, I fought tooth and nail to turn the CFPB from an unlikely idea to a concrete, consumer-protecting reality. And I won’t stop fighting to keep it that way.
Three: One single extremist judge down in Texas could ban mifepristone — a medication commonly used for abortions in America — across the entire country.
Mifepristone has been approved by the FDA for two decades. It’s been proven to be safe for medication abortions. But any day now, this Trump appointee could wake up, decide that he’s qualified to override the FDA’s scientific judgment, take mifepristone off the market nationwide, and make abortion care even more inaccessible for millions of Americans.
Let’s be clear: After the Supreme Court said that abortion rights would be up to the states, we warned that the extremists wouldn’t stop here. They’d threaten reproductive freedom in every corner of the country, even in places like Massachusetts that have strong protections. And that’s exactly what this Trump judge could do with this case.
But we won’t be out of options, no matter how he rules. After the Court overturned Roe v. Wade, I called on the Biden-Harris administration to expand access to medication abortion. They’re already taking action, and they have more tools they can use to keep protecting the right to an abortion.
Now, notice what all three of these cases have in common: The danger that right-wing judges and justices could decide to substitute their own judgment for the judgment of elected officials and qualified experts.
Extremists have hijacked the judiciary, and they’re using it to advance a far-right agenda that they’d never be able to pass through Congress. They’re using it to rig the rules even more in favor of the rich and powerful, and they’re using it to rip away our freedoms.
