Hirono, Senate Democratic Women Take to Senate Floor in Opposition to Judge Gorsuch

Senators Mazie K. Hirono, Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) took to the Senate floor to talk about the real world consequences that Judge Neil Gorsuch and the Supreme Court’s rulings have on working families. 

From Senator Hirono’s remarks:

“As we mark Equal Pay Day, I am well aware of the tremendous impact a single justice can have on the lives and right of millions of Americans. Under Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court has issued numerous 5-4 decisions which have favored corporate interests over the rights of individuals. Cases like Shelby County. Like Citizens United, Like Hobby Lobby. 

“One of the most deeply flawed of these 5-4 decisions was in a 2007 case called Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.   That decision had the effect of denying justice to a woman who had suffered pay discrimination for more than a decade. The court said, in effect, that because Lilly Ledbetter didn’t learn of the pay discrimination until it was too late, our justice system could not help her.

“Clearly, the composition of the Court and identity of the 5th Justice matters a great deal in the real world. The real world of 5-4 decisions. Yet, during his hearing Judge Gorsuch refused to even acknowledge the role that judicial philosophy plays in the role of a justice. And he downplayed the impact the law could have on people’s lives, repeatedly saying he merely applied the law.”