[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 147 (Wednesday, September 5, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H7828-H7829]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 UNDERSTAND THE POWER A COURT CAN WIELD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Arizona (Mr. Gallego) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, tens of thousands of 
Arizona teachers took to the streets to demand that Governor Ducey and 
the Arizona State Legislature do right by Arizona students. It did so 
because Ducey and the State GOP have crippled the State's public 
education system.
  Arizona spends the second lowest amount of money per student in the 
country, and Arizona's teachers are paid at the second lowest rate in 
the country. Students and teachers alike describe textbooks held 
together by tape, moldy ceilings leaking on students, and classes so 
overcrowded that kids have to sit on the floor.
  Mr. Speaker, that is not what schools in the richest country in the 
world should look like. That is why Arizona's teachers championed the 
Invest in Ed proposition, to secure over $600 million in annual 
education funds for Arizona after Governor Ducey failed to provide the 
resources our students so desperately needed.
  Over a quarter of a million Arizonans signed their names to get the 
Invest in Ed proposal on Arizona's ballot this fall. That is democracy 
in action. But last week, the Arizona State Supreme Court ordered the 
removal of the Invest in Ed proposition from State ballots based on a 
small technicality.
  This appalling ruling is an insult to Arizona students, teachers, 
families, and to democracy. It is a blow to Arizona's education system 
and our economy. It is a naked power grab by the GOP that undermines 
our democracy by removing the right of voters to choose what is best 
for their kids and their communities.
  Invest in Ed wasn't defeated because a majority of Arizonans votes 
against it. It wasn't defeated because it was opposed by an elected 
politician who can be removed from office in the next election. It was 
killed by Doug Ducey's supreme court, a court that Ducey and the 
Arizona Republicans packed with conservatives.
  Governor Ducey fully understood the power a court can wield when he 
ran through his court-packing plan in 2016

[[Page H7829]]

to increase the size of the Arizona State Supreme Court. He knew the 
incredible power of a supreme court pick, even at the State level.
  Mr. Speaker, we in Congress must not underestimate that power, 
especially now. Donald Trump has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to 
fill a seat in the U.S. Supreme Court, and here is what we know:
  Judge Kavanaugh believes that a woman has no legal right to full 
autonomy over her own body;
  Judge Kavanaugh believes that the agency created to protect consumers 
from fraud and predatory lending is unconstitutional;
  Judge Kavanaugh believes that access to affordable healthcare should 
be determined by your age or your gender or your preexisting condition;
  Judge Kavanaugh believes that the President should be above the law.
  Here is what we don't know:
  We don't know what is in the hundreds of thousands of pages of 
Kavanaugh's records that the Trump White House has refused to release, 
contrary to a century of Supreme Court precedent. That is unacceptable.
  The Invest in Ed decision in Arizona is a blatant example of judicial 
power gone wrong, judicial power used to undermine democracy.
  If confirmed, Judge Kavanaugh would join a panel of Justices with 
this very same power: the power to keep gutting the Voting Rights Act, 
the power to keep green-lighting partisan gerrymandering, the power to 
keep signing off on GOP efforts to purge the voter rolls.
  We cannot allow this to happen. Doug Ducey's State supreme court set 
back democracy in Arizona. What Doug Ducey did to Arizona, Donald Trump 
will do to America with this Supreme Court. We cannot let that happen.
  My colleagues in the Senate should reject Judge Kavanaugh's 
nomination. Our democracy depends on it.

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