Judge Amy Coney Barrett
President Trump’s nomination of U.S. Circuit Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court is being called shameful by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF).
In a news release, it said, “Judge Barrett has a track record of harming the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, pregnant people, immigrants, and more.”
NAPAWF Director Sung Yeon Choimorrow said Barrett “is opposed to health care access, including abortion, and through her support of sex-selective abortion bans, demonstrated that she supports the racial profiling of AAPI women based on nothing more than disproven stereotypes about our communities.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal said “Any individual nominated to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court must believe in equal justice under law and opportunity for all… Not only does Amy Coney Barrett fail to meet that standard, but she has spent years consistently and dangerously arguing against it from the federal bench.”
Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an affiliation of five independent Asian American civil rights organizations, also condemned the nomination, for the following reasons:
- Barrett’s confirmation would threaten the health of millions of people as the Court is considering a challenge to the Affordable Care Act in which she has made clear she will invalidate. The Affordable Care Act provides health care options to millions of Americans, including two million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
- Barrett consistently rules against immigrants seeking relief from deportation. She cast the deciding vote permitting the deportation of a lawful resident who resided in the United States for 30 years. As the dissent noted, the law banishing him may violate equal protection under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process clause.
- Barrett favored the “public charge” rule and said it was lawful and should be upheld. It is a rule that denies immigrants permanent residence if they received any form of public assistance, including Medicaid or food stamps, for more than 12 months in a three-year period, even though Congress has made these benefits available to them.