PHOTOS: Protest Outside Reed & Whitehouse’s Offices Calls for Senators to Shut Down Senate
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Hundreds rallied in front of the offices of U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse on Sunday, urging them to take every procedural action possible to "shut down" the Senate to block Republican attempts to confirm President Donald Trump appointment to the Supreme Court.
Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death on Friday created a vacancy and has redefined the Presidential race.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate would vote on a Trump nominee. Trump has said he will make a selection this week. If confirmed, this would be Trump's third appointment to the high court.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“This is not a test. Everything we hold dear is on the chopping block, and we are counting on our Senators to do whatever it takes to block this illegitimate seizure of our courts by a GOP minority that hasn't won a democratic majority in years,” said former Rhode Island state representative Aaron Regunberg. “Democrats need to literally shut the Senate down -- and we want Senator Reed and Senator Whitehouse to know that Rhode Islanders will be with them 100% when they do.”
SEE PHOTOS OF THE PROTEST BELOW
A dozen Rhode Island organizations spanning the length of the Democratic Party’s ideological spectrum participated in the protest, including Rhode Island Working Families Party, the Rhode Island Democratic Women's Caucus, Sunrise Providence, Gen Z: We Want to Live, Planned Parenthood Votes! Rhode Island, Rhode Island Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, Providence DSA, Climate Action RI, Reclaim RI, PROV X, One Gun Gone, and Young Democrats of Rhode Island. Many representatives from these groups spoke about how they had supported Senators Reed and Whitehouse in the past, and now they were counting on them to follow through on their commitments to stand up for Rhode Islanders.
Liz Gledhill, Chair of the Rhode Island Democratic Women’s Caucus, said, “In the last election, for the first time in our history, we allowed male candidates such as Senator Jack Reed to seek our recommended support. Our endorsement committee identified Senator Reed as someone who allied with our mission, and someone we could put our trust in. Today, we are calling on Senator Reed to honor the faith our members put in him by doing everything in his power to prevent a Supreme Court Justice nomination from coming to the Senate floor less than two months from the Presidential election. Justice Ginsburg’s dying words, dictated to her granddaughter were, ‘My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.’ We must fight to honor that dying wish.”
The rally also featured the voices of many Rhode Islanders who have the most to fear from a conservative 6-3 Supreme Court. Jaychelle Schenck, co-founder of Gen Z: We Want to Live, said, “Generation Z owes Ruth Bader Ginsburg our thanks. But now all of the rights that she fought for, and that we depend on, are in danger. Her replacement will determine the laws young people will be forced to live with for the rest of our lives. We need our senators to step up and fight like everything is on the line -- because for our generation, it is.”
Susanna Yim, an organizer with the youth climate activist group Sunrise Movement, said, “My family survived an authoritarian government. My grandmother died in the arms of my father. If my father did not fight to survive, I would not be standing here today. I don't want the people of the US to have to face the kinds of choices that my family had to make. Senator Whitehouse, 11 days ago you yourself said, ‘It is very important that in the highest offices in the country people stand up and push back.’ We, the people, stand with you to push back against President Trump and Mitch McConnell. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, our lives are on the line. We will not back down and we expect that you will not back down.”
Related Slideshow: Ginsburg Vacancy Protest in Providence - Sept. 20, 2020
Related Articles
- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg to Visit RWU School of Law
- BREAKING: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87
- Reaction to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Passing
- Justice Ginsburg’s Death and the 2020 Presidential Race - “The Sunday Political Brunch”
