Feminists are leading the fight against a right-wing US judiciary | Moira Donegan
The Democratic base is tired of the party being passive about Republicans packing the judiciary. So what’s their game plan?
Last Sunday, a boisterous group of protesters, primarily women, marched through Washington, DC. They stopped in front of the Washington home of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court. The protest, called “Reclaim the Court,” was led by civil rights groups like Planned Parenthood Action, the Center for Popular Democracy, and the Women’s March, and was meant to mark the first anniversary of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, and came on the heels of new reporting that lends corroboration to accusations of sexual assault by the Justice and provides greater evidence that he lied under oath at his confirmation hearings, charges which he has denied.
Protestors carried signs that said “KAVA-NOPE” and “SUPREMELY CORRUPT.” A sister demonstration took place in Portland, Maine, where constituents expressed pointed displeasure at Senator Susan Collins, who voted to confirm Kavanaugh last year. At a podium on the Court steps in DC, protestors called on House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to initiate impeachment proceedings against Kavanaugh, as he previously promised to do if Democrats won the House in the 2018 midterms. There was palpable rage at the appointment of Kavanaugh, whose presence on the Court symbolized the persistence of two great threats to women’s full citizenship and bodily autonomy: sexual assault and the erosion of abortion and contraception rights. Chants rose up of “My body, my choice.” A sign raised towards the Court façade read, “BELIEVE SURVIVORS.” The demonstrators felt that the Court has the power to make life-altering decisions about the rights and freedoms of women, and that Kavanaugh’s presence there indicated that they would not choose well.