Dozens of demonstrators gathered in protest of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Sunday afternoon. They lined the sidewalk outside the Supreme Court building only days after mourners flocked to the same spot, grieving the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Trump’s nomination Saturday of Amy Coney Barrett — a former clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia and an unwavering conservative — drew quick opposition from Democrats and advocacy groups. Those who protested Sunday condemned the nomination of a judge who, if confirmed, would cement the conservative majority on the court, possibly threatening current abortion and healthcare laws.
D.C. resident Adina Wadsworth says anger motivated her to come out on Sunday — anger at what she says is hypocrisy on the part of GOP senators who opposed former president Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination in 2016.
“I’m angry at this administration pushing through a judge when Ginsburg hasn’t even been buried yet,” Wadsworth says. “I don’t want the court shoved down our throats on a 6-3 conservative majority, it’s not right.”
Hearings on Barrett’s nomination will begin October 12. Wadsworth, who lives less than a mile from the Supreme Court, says she will return as many days as possible to continue protesting. Julie Peters, a director with the advocacy group that organized Sunday’s demonstration, says a second protest is already planned for early Tuesday morning.
“It’s an extraordinarily short timeline,” Peter says, referencing the 40 days between the nomination and election. “Every day is important.”
Sunday’s demonstration marks the latest in a string of protests against Senate Republicans since, hours after Ginsburg’s death, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for Senate vote on a new justice. Earlier this week, local advocates protested outside of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Capitol Hill home and again at McConnell’s Stanton Park home.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund and local groups like SPACEs in Action and Sunrise Movement DC, joined the protest on Sunday, taking aim at Barrett’s threats to abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act if confirmed. Anti-abortion advocates gathered in a small counter-protest nearby.
“The news is disturbing and unsettling, and our democracy is really hanging the balance,” Peters says. “We’re in this fight for healthcare and so many other things. I’m thinking about DREAMers, about Roe V. Wade, and truly our democracy and what will happen with this election.”
Local Democratic lawmakers have also decried Barrett’s nomination, including Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen. Last week, Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan criticized the GOP’s haste in filling the seat, calling it “a mistake.” On Saturday, D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus Judicial Nominations Task Force, released a statement urging senate members to reject the nomination. In Virginia, Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner also opposed filling the vacancy under the current presidential term, calling on McConnell to follow his precedent from 2016.
With the election less than two months away, the Senate has 40 days to push through a confirmation, although hundreds of thousands of early ballots have already been cast.
Daniella Cheslow contributed reporting to this story.
Colleen Grablick