Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh

Floor Speech

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Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise to talk about my strong opposition to Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. I want to specifically focus on what his confirmation could mean for the future of voting rights in this country.

The right to vote is our most sacred responsibility as citizens of this great Nation. Martin Luther King, Jr., called voting ``the foundation stone for political action.'' That is because when the right to vote is restricted, it undermines the very foundation of our democracy. If certain groups are barred or discouraged from voting, then our elected representatives cannot be held accountable for protecting the rights and interests of all of us.

When you cast your vote, you decide who should be entrusted to protect all of your rights--your right to make private decisions about how and when to start a family, your right to organize and advocate for fair pay and safe working conditions, your right to affordable healthcare, and your right to breathe clean air and drink clean water. Yet, if Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, there is no doubt he will help his friends in far-right special interest groups continue their coordinated campaign to make it harder for millions of Americans to vote. These are the very same groups who recommended his nomination to the President.

These special interest groups have helped to pass State laws that have been designed to create obstacles at every step of the voting process, like making it more difficult to register to vote, to cast your vote, and to have your vote counted equally. These groups also know that they can count on Judge Kavanaugh to uphold these discriminatory laws.

As a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Kavanaugh has a record of supporting laws that perpetuate voting discrimination, particularly against communities of color. In 2012, he wrote an opinion for a three-judge panel that upheld South Carolina's stringent voter ID law even though the Department of Justice had determined that the law would violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Unfortunately, discriminatory voting laws, like the one Judge Kavanaugh upheld, have a long and shameful history in this country. When this country was founded, generally only property-owning White men had the right to vote. It took 80 years to expand the franchise to all male citizens regardless of their race or color. It took another 50 years to grant women the right to vote and another 4 years after that to grant that right to all Native Americans. Yet the expansion of the legal right to vote did not always translate into access at the polls. It took us over a century to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed discriminatory poll taxes, literacy tests, and other voter intimidation tactics. This landmark civil rights legislation finally put real teeth in the promise of the 15th Amendment--that no one should be denied the right to vote on account of one's race or the color of one's skin.

Unfortunately, in 2013, the Supreme Court gutted one of the most important protections of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. Since then, far-right special interests at the State level have doubled down on their efforts to make it harder for people to vote by eliminating same-day and online voter registration, by limiting early voting, by enacting voter ID laws, and by purging infrequent voters from the registration rolls. These latest efforts make it harder rather than easier for people to vote. They show us there is still so much work to be done to fulfill the promise of the 14th and 15th Amendments--that every citizen can vote.

We deserve a Justice who is committed to making our democracy more representative so that we remain a government for the people and not just for some of the people. We need a Supreme Court Justice who appreciates the history of this hard-won fundamental right and who will not reverse course on centuries of progress. Judge Kavanaugh's opinions show that he will uphold State laws that make it harder for communities of color and people of low-income to make their voices heard.

Our voting laws reflect our beliefs about who should have a voice in this country. I am proud to represent Minnesota, the State with the highest voter turnout in the Nation, and I believe that our next Supreme Court Justice should vigorously defend the right of all eligible citizens to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right--the right to vote. Unfortunately, Judge Kavanaugh's record demonstrates he will not be that Justice.

I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing his nomination, and I urge the American people to make their voices heard.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

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