WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Wednesday released a statement on the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. 

“Senator McConnell set a precedent when he refused to hold a hearing on Merrick Garland, and he should stick to the rule he set. Under the McConnell rule, the Senate shouldn't consider any nominee for the Supreme Court until January, and I expect Republicans in the Senate to honor the rule they all agreed to just two short years ago," said Murphy. "If McConnell insists on starting proceedings on a radical Trump nominee, I will do everything in my power to stop him. I did not run for the Senate to grease the skids for radicals on the Supreme Court to decimate the rights of millions of Americans. The existing Court's assault on voting rights, collective bargaining, and religious liberty is awful enough – just imagine how bad working people will have it if another right-wing justice joins the Court. This is a red alert moment for the American people—we need all hands on deck to stop the Court from taking a vicious, anti-worker, anti-women, anti-LGBT, anti-civil rights turn.”

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