The Activist Left Turns Its Fire on Amy Coney Barrett

The professional Left will stop at nothing to derail the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court, a contemptible tradition dating back to the “borking” of Judge Robert Bork’s 1987 confirmation process.

Here we’ve detailed for posterity’s sake the statements, protests, and histrionics of leading activist groups during Barrett’s confirmation hearings. (I’ve also covered the top “dark money” groups attempting to sabotage Barrett’s confirmation process here.)

Judicial Activists and Litigation Groups

People for the American Way (2018 expenditures: $7 million)

• Barrett is an “anti-health care, anti-choice judge.”

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (2018 expenditures: $3.6 million)

• Criticized Barrett’s “extreme record” as “fundamentally cruel” and her confirmation as “outrageous.”
• “Barrett has accrued a record that raises alarms around issues of health care as well as racial equity, criminal justice, immigrants’ rights and the rights of working people.”
• In one ruling, Barrett’s decision “essentially [gave] the nod to a modern-day example of racist ‘separate but equal’ segregation practices.”

Alliance for Justice (2018 expenditures: $6 million)

• Barrett is an “ideologue programmed to toe the conservative line at every step.”
• Hosts a 32-page “report” stating, “The fact is, anyone President Trump would nominate has no place on the [Supreme] Court.”

Demand Justice (expenditures: secret)

• Hosts a “factsheet” that paints Barrett as a racist, ideologically opposed to Roe v. Wade and Obamacare.
• Plans to spend $10 million to block Barrett’s confirmation.

Fix the Court (expenditures: secret)

• Purchased StopBarrett.com, an anti-Barrett website, in 2018.

NAACP (2018 expenditures: $32 million)

• Barrett is an “illegitimate and grave threat to civil rights.”

Constitutional Accountability Center (2018 expenditures: $3 million)

• Authored multiple reports accusing Barrett of being “a reliable vote for big business,” posing a “threat to Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg’s legacy,” puts “Supreme Court’s legitimacy at grave risk.”

Agitation Groups, Think Tanks, and Super PACs

Center for Popular Democracy (2018 expenditures: $33 million)

• Barrett nomination is a “blatant power grab.”

MoveOn.org (2018 expenditures: $10 million)

• On first day of hearings, MoveOn hosted an event “honoring the life of [Justice] Ginsburg, featuring Hillary Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA),” among others.

Indivisible (2018 expenditures: $13 million)

• “We Must Stop ACB from Becoming Trump’s Next Justice.”

End Citizens United (Latest receipts for 2020 cycle: $30 million)

• “Republicans are rushing to confirm Amy Coney Barrett because they have promises to their Big Donors they need to keep.”

Center for American Progress and CAP Action (Combined 2018 expenditures : $55 million)

• Barrett is a threat to “the rights of women to control their reproductive lives.”

Accountable.US (expenditures: secret)

• Barrett’s “unconscionable cruelty” in an alleged rape case “has no place on the high court.”

Giffords Law Center (2018 expenditures: $3 million)

• Barrett’s “vision of an unlimited Second Amendment” right advances President Trump’s “deadly efforts to promote the use of firearms for intimidation and political violence.”

Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund (2018 expenditures: $74,970,297)

• Confirmation of Barrett “threaten[s] to diminish faith in the [Supreme] Court for years to come.”

Labor Unions

AFSCME (2019 expenditures: $200 million, including $26 million for politics and lobbying)

• Barrett will “stop at nothing to rip health care coverage away from millions.”

Service Employees International Union.

• “Confirming Barrett would rip healthcare away from working people.”

National Education Association

• Barrett “will do their [Republican politicians’] bidding to strike down the Affordable Care Act, stripping millions of health care coverage and protections from preexisting conditions.”

Abortion, Feminist, and LGBT Advocacy Groups

Planned Parenthood Action Fund (2018 expenditures: $35 million)

• It’s “absolutely wrong” to confirm Barrett.

NARAL Pro-Choice America (2018 expenditures: $14 million)

• “Barrett poses a clear and present danger to our fundamental rights and this [confirmation] hearing is part of an illegitimate and craven power grab.”

Lambda Legal (2018 expenditures: $19 million)

• Barrett’s “misgendering of transgender people, particularly of transgender youth, callously disregards the legitimacy of their identity.”
• “Barrett will unleash a Supreme Court majority that is hostile to all of our basic civil rights.”

Human Rights Campaign (2018 expenditures: $43 million)

• Barrett “has demonstrated hostility toward LGBTQ rights in her words and rulings.”
• “Her hostility towards many of society’s most marginalized, victimized and vulnerable groups raises serious concerns about her ability to be impartial and fairly consider the rights of all who come before the Court.”

National Women’s Law Center (2018 expenditures: $13 million)

• “Amy Coney Barrett Threatens a Lifetime of Harm to Sexual Assault Survivors.”
• Barrett “poses a threat to Obergefell and the future of marriage equality.”
• Barrett’s supports “bans on abortion and forcing young people to tell their parents about their decision to have an abortion.”

Environmental Activists

Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate (2018 expenditures $54 million)

• “Keep Amy Coney Barrett off” the Supreme Court.

League of Conservation Voters (2018 expenditures: $66 million)

• Barrett has “disdain for federal agencies” tackling “climate change,” making it “harder for communities of color to seek justice for repeated and targeted environmental harms.”

Sierra Club (2018 expenditures: $142 million)

• “Barrett twice refused to acknowledge and accept the reality of the climate crisis.”

Religious Activist Groups

National Council of Jewish Women (2018 expenditures: $6 million)

• “We are also deeply troubled that Barrett has stated she would prioritize her personal religious views above settled law.”

Bend the Arc Jewish Action (2018 expenditures: $2 million)

• Barrett “irreparably tainted” by Republican Party “hypocrisy.”

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (2018 expenditures: $7 million)

• Barrett is a “threat to religious freedom,” using it “harm women, LGBTQ people, religious minorities, the nonreligious and others.”
• Authored a series of questions for Barrett implying she’s a threat to the separation of church and state.

Faithful America (2018 expenditures: $58,139)

• Launched petition claiming Christians oppose confirmation of Barrett.
• Barrett “is the nominee the religious right has dreamed of for years,” the group scolds, “but her record should appall anyone who believes in loving their neighbor.”

Open Letters to the U.S. Senate Opposing Barrett’s Confirmation

On October 6, 2020, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights released an open letter urging the Senate not to confirm Barrett to the Supreme Court. The following groups co-signed the letter:

• A Better Balance
• Advocates for Youth
• Alaskans Together for Equality
• Alliance for Justice
• Alliance for Youth Action
• American Atheists
• American Federation of Teachers
• American Humanist Association
• American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
• Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC)
• Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
• Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council
• Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
• Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
• Caneiwalk
• Center for American Progress Action Fund
• Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
• Center for Responsible Lending
• CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers
• Civil Liberties & Public Policy
• Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues
• Coalition of Labor Union Women
• Committee for a Fair Judiciary (CFJ)
• Communications Workers of America (CWA)
• Community Catalyst
• Daily Kos
• Dallas Peace & Justice Center
• Demand Justice
• Demand Progress
• Demos
• Disability Rights Advocates
• End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund
• Environmental Working Group
• Equal Justice Society
• Equality Arizona
• Equality California
• Equality Federation
• Equality Maine
• Equality Montana
• Equality North Carolina
• Equality Texas
• Equality Utah
• Fair Wisconsin
• Faith Action Network – Washington State
• Family Equality
• Feminist Majority Foundation
• Fenway Institute
• For Our Future Action Fund
• FORGE, Inc.
• Forum for Equality
• Freedom Oklahoma
• Free Press Action
• Freedom from Religion Foundation
• FreeState Justice
• Garden State Equality Action Fund
• Gender Justice
• Georgia Equality
• GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality
• GLSEN
• Housing Choice Partners
• Human Rights Campaign
• If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice
• In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda
• Indivisible
• Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
• Jewish Women International
• Jobs with Justice
• Juvenile Law Center
• Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
• Lambda Legal
• LatinoJustice PRLDEF
• Lawyers for Good Government
• The Leadership Conference Education Fund
• League of Conservation Voters
• Legal Aid at Work
• Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
• Matthew Shepard Foundation
• MomsRising
• MomsRising Together
• Montana Gender Alliance
• Montana Human Rights Network
• Muslim Advocates
• NAACP
• NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF)
• NARAL Pro-Choice America
• NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut
• NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland
• NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri
• NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina
• NARAL Pro-Choice Texas
• National Abortion Federation
• National Action Network
• National Association of Social Workers
• National Center for Transgender Equality
• National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
• National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls
• National Council of Jewish Women
• National Domestic Workers Alliance
• National Education Association
• National Employment Law Project
• National Equality Action Team (NEAT)
• National Homelessness Law Center
• National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund
• National Network of Abortion Funds
• National Organization for Women
• National Partnership for New Americans
• National Partnership for Women & Families
• National Women’s Health Network
• National Women’s Law Center
• Oil Change International
• One Iowa Action
• Organization for Black Struggle
• Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans
• People for the American Way
• People’s Action
• Physicians for Reproductive Health
• Population Connection Action Fund
• Population Institute
• Pride at Work
• Progressive Turnout Project
• Protect Our Care
• RepresentUs New Mexico
• Reproaction
• SEIU
• SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change
• Silver State Equality-Nevada
• SiX Action
• Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
• SPLC Action Fund
• Stand Up America
• Step Forward Strategies
• The Taifa Group
• The Womxn Project
• TIME’S UP Now
• Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Treatment Action Group
• True North Research
• United Church of Christ, OC Inc.
• United State of Women
• United We Dream
• URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity
• Violence Policy Center
• Voices for Progress
• We Testify
• Women’s March
• Women’s Health Center of West Virginia
• Women’s Law Project

On October 9, 2020, three left-wing immigration groups—Immigration Hub, United We Dream, and UndocuBlack Network—released an open letter opposing Barrett’s confirmation co-signed by the following organizations:

• Adhikaar
• America’s Voice
• American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
• Asian American Advocacy Fund
• Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
• Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project
• California Immigrant Policy Center
• Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
• Center for Popular Democracy Action
• Church World Service
• Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)
• Coalition on Human Needs
• Dreamer Fund
• Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC)
• Farmworker Justice
• First Focus Campaign for Children
• Haitian Bridge Alliance
• Hands Across the River
• Hispanic Federation
• Immigration Hub
• Lawyers for Good Government
• League of Conservation Voters
• Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center
• MomsRising
• MoveOn
• National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF)
• National Council of Asian Pacific Americans
• National Council of Jewish Women
• National Education Association
• National Equality Action Team (NEAT)
• National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC)
• National Immigration Law Center
• National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
• National Partnership for New Americans
• NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
• New York Immigration Coalition
• North Carolina Justice Center
• Ohio Immigrant Alliance
• Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada
• RAICES
• Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
• Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network (SIREN)
• SPLC Action Fund
• The Children’s Partnership
• Transgender Law Center
• UndocuBlack
• Union for Reform Judaism
• United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
• United We Dream
• Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center