Signature needed: Amy Coney Barrett's hostility towards the Affordable Care Act threatens the lives of people with disabilities

Friend, on Monday, October 12, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin holding Zoom calls to assess whether the Senate should confirm Amy Coney Barrett to a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the nation. In stark contrast to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose decisions consistently respected and advanced the rights of individuals with disabilities, Barrett has demonstrated a hostility to disability rights. Her sloppy, illegitimate confirmation process puts lives and rights at unacceptable risk. [Sign and send a petition to your U.S. senators: Disability rights are at stake. Stop this illegitimate confirmation.]( If you have a disability or are a caretaker, please share your personal story with your senators. Our stories are important and powerful. [SIGN AND SEND A PETITION]( Barrett has strongly [criticized]( both major decisions upholding the ACA. In response to the NFIB v. Sebelius ruling, she wrote that the ACA should have been struck down as unconstitutional, and criticized Justice Roberts' conclusion that upheld the ACA’s constitutionality. She also disagreed with the King v. Burwell decision, where a 6-3 majority rejected an attempt to weaken the ACA by eliminating subsidies that helped millions of Americans buy insurance. The protections for individuals with preexisting conditions, elimination of lifetime benefit caps, expansion of home and community based services options, protections against disability discrimination, and the state Medicaid expansions authorized under the ACA have been instrumental to improved quality of life for people with disabilities and their families. [Sign and send a petition to your U.S. senators: Disability rights are at stake. Stop this illegitimate confirmation.]( If you have a disability or are a caretaker, please share your personal story with your senators. Our stories are important and powerful. [SIGN AND SEND A PETITION]( Barrett's disturbing attacks on people with disabilities don't stop with the ACA. She [dissented]( from a Seventh Circuit decision concluding that the Trump Administration’s “public charge” rule discriminates against people with disabilities. The rule, which makes it difficult for immigrants with disabilities to come to the U.S. or become permanent residents, disproportionately burdens disabled people. She also [joined]( a decision that Wisconsin did not discriminate based on disability by requiring children with learning disabilities to apply for placement in other school districts separately from all other children and allowing their exclusion from those districts on the basis of their service needs. Barrett's documented hostility towards the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and her abysmal record on many issues that would harm people with disabilities disqualifies her from the Court. [Sign and send a petition to your U.S. senators: Disability rights are at stake. Stop this illegitimate confirmation.]( If you have a disability or are a caretaker, please share your personal story with your senators. Our stories are important and powerful. [SIGN AND SEND A PETITION]( The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the Trump Administration backed lawsuit to repeal the ACA on November 10th, just one week after the election. Republicans are rushing to put a justice on the Supreme Court who will overturn the ACA — ripping health care away from more than 20 million people and protections for more than 133 million people with preexisting conditions, and raising their costs in the middle of the pandemic. Rushing a confirmation makes a mockery of the serious consideration and review that must be given to the record and background of a nominee for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, which decides issues of enormous magnitude for the lives of all Americans with disabilities. The Senate should wait until after the inauguration, when it can hold a legitimate process. [Sign and send a petition to your U.S. senators: Disability rights are at stake. Stop this illegitimate confirmation.]( If you have a disability or are a caretaker, please share your personal story with your senators. Our stories are important and powerful. [SIGN AND SEND A PETITION]( Keep fighting, Monique Teal, Daily Kos Daily Kos Relies on Readers Like You We don't have billionaire sugar daddies like some right-wing media outlets. Half our revenue comes from readers like you, meaning we literally couldn't do this work without you. Can you chip in $5 right now to help Daily Kos keep fighting? [Chip in $5]( If you wish to donate by mail instead, please send a check to Daily Kos, PO Box 70036, Oakland, CA, 94612. Contributions to Daily Kos are not tax deductible. Sent via [ActionNetwork.org](. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Daily Kos, please [click here](.