Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) teamed up with Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA) to issue a letter calling on the Senate to declare Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh liars.
In the letter — which they addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — the pair claimed that both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh had lied to the Senate when they said during their respective confirmation hearings that Roe v. Wade was settled precedent.
“Our Constitutional Republic cannot tolerate Supreme Court Justices who lied in order to get confirmed. The legitimacy of the Court is at stake,” Lieu tweeted, sharing a screenshot of the letter. “Letter from @AOC and me requesting the Senate to make a finding on whether Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch lied to the American people.”
Our Constitutional Republic cannot tolerate Supreme Court Justices who lied in order to get confirmed. The legitimacy of the Court is at stake.
Letter from @AOC and me requesting the Senate to make a finding on whether Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch lied to the American people. pic.twitter.com/snQQf2cVKm
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 11, 2022
Ocasio-Cortez shared Lieu’s comment and added her own, saying, “We cannot allow Supreme Court nominees lying and/or misleading the Senate under oath to go unanswered. Both GOP & Dem Senators stated SCOTUS justices misled them. This cannot be accepted as precedent. Doing so erodes rule of law, delegitimizes the court, and imperils democracy.”
We cannot allow Supreme Court nominees lying and/or misleading the Senate under oath to go unanswered.
Both GOP & Dem Senators stated SCOTUS justices misled them. This cannot be accepted as precedent.
Doing so erodes rule of law, delegitimizes the court, and imperils democracy. https://t.co/yZW6BKnqFG
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 11, 2022
“We request that the Senate make its position clear on whether Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch lied under oath during their confirmation hearings,” Ocasio-Cortez and Lieu wrote in the letter, adding, “We must call out their actions for what they were before the moment passes so that we can prevent such a mendacious denigration of our fundamental rights and the rule of law from ever happening again.”
Both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh stated during their confirmation hearings that they considered Roe — along with its successor, Planned Parenthood v. Casey — to be settled precedent in the eyes of the court. Many took those statements to mean that they would never vote to overturn the two landmark abortion cases — which they did in late June. But stating that those cases were “precedent” did not mean that either justice was lying — nor did it necessarily constitute a promise to never overturn said precedent.
The fact that both Roe and Casey were “precedent” did not mean that they were necessarily constitutional or that they were not simply bad law, however. Plessy v. Ferguson — which allowed for segregation under the banner of “separate but equal” — was also precedent once, until Brown v. Board of Education reversed that. Korematsu v. United States — which allowed for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II — was also considered precedent until it wasn’t.