Shortly after the Senate voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court Saturday afternoon, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson denounced the decision, and urged Americans to take to the polls in November.
In a statement posted on the civil rights organization’s website, Johnson described the vote — essentially down party lines — as a “devastating blow” to the nation.
“The U.S. Senate’s decision today to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is a devastating blow to our democracy. It threatens the integrity and legitimacy of the Senate and the Supreme Court as institutions, and the nation may never recover. This day will go down in infamy for the Senate’s abject failure to exercise its constitutional duty to advise and consent,” Johnson’s statement said.
“The NAACP condemns this reckless & deeply partisan rush to confirm Kavanaugh after critical issues were raised about his integrity, temperament, impartiality, history of sexual assault, and judicial record. There is far too much at stake for every community not to have fully reviewed this nominee for the highest court in the land who will chart our future for a generation.”
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Despite public protests and outcry among Democrats, President Trump’s nominee was confirmed in a 50-48 vote. On Saturday evening, Kavanaugh was sworn in as the 114th justice of the Supreme Court.
Democratic members of the Senate had questioned the judge’s fitness for the high court after he was accused of sexual assault years earlier. Kavanaugh also drew sharp criticism for becoming enraged during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing as he denied the allegations.
Trump called Kavanaugh’s confirmation a “tremendous victory” on Sunday during a rally in Topeka, Kansas, PBS reported.
You can read Johnson’s full statement below.
The U.S. Senate’s decision today to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is a devastating blow to our democracy. It threatens the integrity and legitimacy of the Senate and the Supreme Court as institutions, and the nation may never recover. This day will go down in infamy for the Senate’s abject failure to exercise its constitutional duty to advise and consent.
The NAACP condemns this reckless and deeply partisan rush to confirm Kavanaugh after critical issues were raised about his integrity, temperament, impartiality, history of sexual assault, and judicial record. There is far too much at stake for every community not to have fully reviewed this nominee for the highest court in the land who will chart our future for a generation.
The American people deserved better than this. Now more than ever we must harness our frustration and use our voices at the ballot box in November so this grave injustice of historic proportion never happens again. We must vote: our freedoms, our protections, and our lives depend on it.
