[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 119 (Wednesday, July 12, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H3211]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New Jersey (Mrs. Watson Coleman) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Madam Speaker, I stand before this room to hold 
this Supreme Court in contempt; this Supreme Court that is wildly out 
of step with both precedent and public opinion.
  This Supreme Court which, through its terrible lack of judgment, both 
in chambers and on luxury vacations, has lost the faith of the American 
people.
  This extremist Supreme Court, through its affirmative action 
decision, has reaffirmed the entrenched power of the wealthy elite who 
pay for their luxury vacations while, at the same time, pulling the rug 
out from under millions of minority students who have excelled despite 
adversity, who strive to attain the American Dream, and who seek to 
help their communities.
  I will talk about the real life-and-death consequences of this 
decision, the collateral damage these Justices have inflicted, because 
in this country Black women have a maternal and infant mortality rate 
three times that of their White peers, while the rate of African-
American medical residents entering OB/GYN programs has been declining.
  The mortality rates for Black mothers and their babies in the United 
States rivals those of many Third World countries. What happens to our 
Nation's shameful infant and maternal mortality rate when fewer Black 
doctors are entering the field able to recognize and combat the biases 
that lead to such misery?
  How many mothers will bear the burden of burying their newborn 
because some faceless organization engaged the Supreme Court in its 
radical politics to uphold white supremacy?
  How many young mothers will be ripped away from their children and 
their husbands due to the perceived slights of fragile men in black 
robes?
  These decisions have consequences.
  Right now, just 4 percent of psychologists are Black. At a time when 
suicide rates are climbing among Black children, what is the 
consequence for a generation of Black children when a generation of 
culturally competent Black therapists and counselors disappears?
  How many American families will be destroyed because the help their 
children needed was not available due to the extreme decisions of 
unaccountable, reckless political actors?
  Something tells me these questions were not top of mind for Justice 
Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas. They are making decisions not based on 
honest interpretation of the Constitution, but on their own radical 
ideology.
  They are a captured, unelected arm of the extreme rightwing of the 
Republican Party. The American people recognize this and have lost 
faith in their ability to pass judgment impartially.
  This decision is not just about who gets to go to school. It is about 
who lives and dies and who is left to pick up the pieces.
  We must reform the Supreme Court and balancing it through expansion 
is a critical response to the crisis we experience.

                          ____________________