Pasadena Congresswoman Judy Chu Calls for Opposition to President Trump’s Pick for Supreme Court

Congresswoman Judy Chu, who represents Pasadena and California’s 27th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, said that women’s right to make their own healthcare choices, to marriage equality, and the expansion of healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are now in serious jeopardy after President Donald nominated U.S. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh as the next Supreme Court justice.

“Trump himself said that he’d like to criminalize abortion and erase the ACA as quickly as possible,” Chu said in a statement Tuesday. “There is no doubt he sees his choice of Kavanaugh as the next step towards that goal. And that’s why we must resist this nomination as though our lives depended on it – because for many of us, they do.”

Chu said Judge Kavanaugh has a “long record of hostility to women’s reproductive freedoms” and the ACA, and has also publicly expressed his belief that President Trump cannot be criminally charged while in office.

“Surely Trump was aware of his position when nominating him, which is an obvious conflict of interest as the Supreme Court is almost certain to hear a case involving the Mueller probe,” Chu said. “Nobody should be able to appoint the judge in their own trial. At the absolute least, Kavanaugh must recuse himself from all cases having to do with Mueller’s investigation.”

Chu called on her colleagues in the U.S. Senate to oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination during the confirmation process.

“In a year where the Court has upheld religious discrimination against Muslims and weakened the power of labor unions while handing more power to businesses, we cannot risk a further shift to the right,” Chu added.

Since 2006, Kavanaugh has served the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and was formerly a White House aide under President George W. Bush.

Kavanaugh also once worked for Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who investigated Democratic former president Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

Trump announced Kavanaugh’s nomination Tuesday, praising the judge as a “brilliant jurist,” and possibly setting the stage for a bruising confirmation battle.