WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, on joined U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and several of their Democratic colleagues in calling on Senate Republicans to honor Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish that she not be replaced until a new president is installed instead of rushing through a justice who will undermine her legacy. In his speech on the U.S. Senate floor, Murphy specifically focused on Senate Republicans’ failure to uphold their commitment to democracy and keep their vow made in 2016 to not to confirm a new U.S. Supreme Court Justice during a presidential election year.

“…[F]our years ago, a Supreme Court vacancy arose through the death of Justice Scalia. Now the Constitution says that a new Supreme Court Justice can't be seated, unless he or she gets an affirmative vote from the Senate. And every single nominee, at least those who weren't withdrawn by the president, essentially got a vote from the Senate before 2016. Because you see, the Founding Fathers didn't actually require the Senate to vote. They didn't because they assumed that leaders of good faith would, of course, fulfill that responsibility to hold a vote. They never considered that the Senate might stretch its discretion under the Constitution so broadly to refuse to consider a nominee simply because they didn't like the president who made the nomination,” said Murphy. “The Founders—they didn't actually micromanage democracy; they set these broad rules, and they trusted that we would all act in good faith toward each other, and with a patriotism toward our nation, in filling in the details. But that's not how 2016 went down. Senate Republicans said they were setting a new precedent: when a nomination is made in the last year of a president's term, the Senate shouldn't act on it. The Senate, in that case Republicans, said should wait for the outcome of the election and let the president who wins make this selection.”

Murphy continued: “…[O]nce you don’t care about fairness, once you can just change precedent on a dime just to accumulate power, then there’s really no end…[T]his is how democracies fall apart. When power becomes more important than the rule of law, our sense of fairness, or even loyalty to country, when your word means nothing. When count no one can count on anyone to stay true to what they say, when nihilism, trumps patriotism. There are new rules in the Senate now. We get that—there are new rules. And Republicans may pretend like they existed before today, but they didn't. This breaks the glass like nothing else did before it.”

Murphy also discussed the stakes for the Affordable Care Act if Republicans move to confirm a Supreme Court nominee before inauguration: “…[I]t is not coincidental that the case that the Supreme Court is due to hear days after the election, is a case that has to do with something that Republicans have been trying so desperately and unsuccessfully to do for 10 years – repeal the Affordable Care Act, and end health care for 20 million Americans and protections against rate gouging for 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions….[I]f if Republicans are successful in appointing an anti-ACA judge to the Supreme Court, and President Trump has made it clear he is not putting anyone up for the Supreme Court that isn't willing to strike down the Affordable Care Act, then we will have a humanitarian catastrophe on our hands in this country.”

“The reason that this nomination is being pushed through is yes, because Republicans care about power more than anything else, but also to make sure that the court around the corner from here does what the American people wouldn't let Congress do,” Murphy said.

On Tuesday, Murphy joined Protect Our Care’s Executive Director Brad Woodhouse and health care advocate Laura Packard, to highlight what’s at stake with the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, and specifically what it means for the Affordable Care Act and the future of Americans’ health care. On Friday, Murphy also marked the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing.

A full transcript of Murphy’s remarks can be found below:

“Thank you, Madam President.

“Madam President, the Russian Federation has a constitution, and if you read Russia's constitution, you’d know that Russia is a democracy.

Why? Because their constitution guarantees the existence of a vibrant multi-party political system. The Russian Constitution prohibits the use of extrajudicial force, or torture by the government. Their constitution says, ‘censorship of the media is prohibited.’ Russia is a democracy, if you read their constitution. But Russia isn't a democracy, of course, it's a dictatorship. One man rules, no one has the right to dissent, there's no freedom of the press, all of that is under the penalty of death. Now, why is this? Well, it's because democracies aren't made by their founding document. Because the document is just a piece of paper—parchment, in our case, with words written on it, and these words are just that—they are words. Democracy doesn't work, unless its leaders choose to follow the rules that those words prescribe, but also operate in the spirit of the values that undergird those words.

“Vladimir Putin will probably tell you that, technically, Russia adheres to its constitution. And that's not true, obviously. But what Putin has done over the years is to slowly erode a democratic system, by using every single inch of discretion allowed to him by that constitution to make democracy functionally impossible. He'll say that censorship doesn't exist because there isn't an explicit censorship law. But we all know that he's used every informal mechanism available to him to make sure that there's no room, no room for the independence of the press.

“Now, something stunning happened here four years ago. A Supreme Court vacancy arose due to the death of Justice Scalia. Now the Constitution says that a new Supreme Court Justice can't be seated, unless he or she gets an affirmative vote from the Senate. And every single nominee, at least those who weren't withdrawn by the president, essentially got a vote from the Senate before 2016. Because you see, the founding fathers didn't actually require the Senate to vote. They didn't, because they assumed that leaders of good faith would, of course, fulfill that responsibility to hold a vote. They never considered that the Senate might stretch its discretion under the Constitution so broadly, to refuse to consider a nominee simply because they didn't like the president who made the nomination.

The founders, they didn't actually micromanage democracy. They set these broad rules, and they trusted that we would all act in good faith toward each other, and with a patriotism toward our nation, in filling in the details. But that's not how 2016 went down. Senate Republicans said they were setting a new precedent. When a nomination is made in the last year of a president's term, the Senate shouldn't act on it. The Senate, in that case Republicans, said should wait for the outcome of the election and let the president who wins make the selection. Now, what Senator McConnell and Senator Graham have said is pretty definitive. It's well covered. But there were lots of Senate Republicans who are still here who were equally definitive about the rules they were establishing.

For instance, the senior senator from Florida said, ‘I don't think we should be moving forward on a nominee in the last year of a president's term. I would say that if it was a Republican president.’ That was the rule that Republicans repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. And they are not telling the truth if they try to spin it differently. And we all know this. And so you may ask, why does it matter that they weren't telling the truth? Why does it matter that Republicans didn't honor their word? Why does it matter that they're willing to bend the rules, no matter the promises they've made in the past, whenever it suits them in order to gain political advantage? Well, it's back to the bet that the founding fathers made. They just didn't anticipate a moment like today, when truth doesn't matter, when lying is normal, when honor is dead. They left us a bunch of wiggle room in the Constitution knowing that we had to treat each other well, with respect, with a concern for precedent, in order to have a functional democracy.

“Senator Alexander, who I greatly admire, said in his statement the other day, that nobody should be surprised that Republicans are going to confirm a Supreme Court nominee before the election, notwithstanding the fact that the election has already started. And it also wipes out the precedent that they just claimed was so sacred four years ago. And that statement is really revealing, whether he meant it or not. What he's saying is that nobody should be surprised by now that Republicans are just willing to do whatever it takes—even making up complete fabrications, like a new rule against confirming justice is an election year—in order to accumulate more power.

“And that's a really dangerous place for this body to head. Because the Constitution does provide all sorts of room to push that document to its limits. To dispense with all fairness and honor and fair play, and to just seek power, no matter the costs. I know this sounds silly, but it's not. There's nothing in the Constitution that prohibits the majority party in this body from, for instance, denying all staff to minority members.

“There's nothing stopping the majority party from banning all minority party members from speaking on the floor.

“And once you don't care about fairness, once you can just change precedent on a dime just to accumulate power, then there's really no end.

“I get it that a comparison to Russia seems a little tortured, a little bit strained, but honestly, this is how democracies fall apart. When power becomes more important than the rule of law, or sense of fairness, or even loyalty to country, when your word means nothing. When no one can count on anyone to stay true to what they say. When nihilism trumps patriotism.

“There are new rules in the senate now. We get that, there are new rules. And republicans may pretend like they existed before today, but they didn't. This breaks the glass, like nothing else did before it.

“And finally, let me ask this – to what end? Why is it so important than Republicans so nakedly grab for power and reset the very rules of how the Senate operates, rules that were so important four years ago? Well, it is not coincidental that the case that the Supreme Court is due to hear days after the election, is a case that has to do with something that Republicans have been trying so desperately and unsuccessfully to do for 10 years – repeal the Affordable Care Act, and end health care for 20 million Americans and protections against rate gouging for 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

“It is worth repeating this, I know my colleagues have said it before and they will say it after. But if Republicans are successful in appointing an anti-ACA judge to the Supreme Court, and President Trump has made it clear he is not putting anyone up for the Supreme Court that isn't willing to strike down the Affordable Care Act, then we will have a humanitarian catastrophe on our hands in this country. Because days after the election, a case is to be heard that will be heard by that new justice that asks to invalidate the entirety of the Affordable Care Act. Not in pieces, not over time, immediately, the whole thing. That is 25 million people losing access to health care, Medicaid, and the state and federal exchanges, in the middle of a pandemic.

“Think about that. Think about 25 million people, the equivalency of something like 10 to 15 different states, all losing health care right off the bat, when COVID is raging in this country. And as Senator Baldwin said, COVID is a pre-existing condition. We are just learning what it does to your body, but it may ravage it. And ultimately, everyone in this country who knows they have COVID or finds out about it through antibody tests down the line will have their rates jacked up if the Affordable Care Act goes away. And spare me the talk of a replacement coming. I've been in this body long enough to know that there is no replacement coming. Republicans have been talking about it for 10 years.

“The Affordable Care Act will be invalidated by this court with this new nominee. Nothing will replace it. Millions of people will lose their health care.

“And the reason that this nomination is being pushed through is, yes, because republicans care about power more than anything else, but also to make sure that the court around the corner from here does what the American people wouldn't let Congress do. Remember, Congress could not repeal the Affordable Care Act, because the people wouldn't let Congress do it. But nobody's going to be fooled about this end around. By the time this nominee comes before this body, nobody's going to be mistaken about the consequences for American’s health care.

“Now I know, Madam President that a lot of people think Democrats are foolishly naive. How can we be surprised by this treachery? This about face of precedent on election year confirmations when Republicans have been changing the rules of the Senate at light speed for five years.

“First, it was the unprecedented denial of a vote to a Supreme Court nominee in 2016, never happened before in American history. Then it was the abolition of the 60 vote requirement for Supreme Court nominees. Then it was the restriction of debate on judges and political appointees so that nobody could actually see how wildly unqualified the people Donald Trump was appointing to office were. Then it was the end of blue slips so that even more radical nominees could be put on the bench. It's been just one power grab after another. And so yes, we probably should have seen this coming. And we probably should have known that a party so committed to ending health insurance for 20 million Americans would do anything to make that happen.

“But I was naïve. I still had hope. I still believed that honor was alive in this place. I still thought that when people said things, they meant it and they would stick to it. I still thought that we can save the Senate. And I believe in my heart that Republicans are going to rue the day that they made nakedly clear that a senator’s word means nothing. Where this place is simply a vehicle to compile as much power as quickly as possible, no matter the cost.

“American democracy is not just the Constitution, it's us. It's the decisions we make every single day. It's the way we treat each other. It's the decision as to whether we care about our word mattering.

“And this month, as it stands tonight, democracy's flicker just got a whole lot duller. I yield the floor.”

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