By Rep. Mary González
Right now, Texans and Americans are headed to the polls in what will be one of the most defining elections for our families, communities and country.
Enormous issues are at stake. But, one that has been largely absent from the conversation is how our votes will affect the makeup of our federal courts. Considering the significant implications, this issue deserves to be lifted up.
The reality is that we have a Supreme Court and many federal courts that are rapidly eroding our rights and are set to erode them even more, unless we do something to stop them. And we didn’t get here by accident.
In the Senate and especially on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Ted Cruz has helped capture our courts for the far right and big corporations, voting to confirm some of the most extreme federal judges in our history.
Cruz enthusiastically supported hundreds of radical-right, lower-court judges nominated by Donald Trump. He personally recommended Matthew Kacsmaryk for a Texas judgeship, and today Judge Kacsmaryk has the go-to courtroom for extremists wanting a friendly ear: reinstating the “Remain-in-Mexico” immigration policy, blocking Biden administration efforts to protect LGBTQ people, and single-handedly endangering the future of abortion medication.
Cruz’s confirmation votes also helped give us a MAGA Supreme Court that has undermined affirmative action, reproductive freedom, environmental protection, and laws that support equity and justice for LGBTQ Americans.
These losses are devastating, but if you think it couldn’t get worse, it could.
MAGA Republicans like Cruz are openly excited about the possibility of naming more Supreme Court justices if Trump is reelected. If they can cement an even further-right court majority, freedoms on the chopping block could include access to contraception and marriage equality.
And some analysts worry that even Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark ruling on school desegregation, could fall.
This is personal to me and to my community. Like many of my constituents I have an intersectional identity: I am Latina, I am rural, I am an educator. I am also the first out LGBTQ woman in the Texas Legislature.
We who have roots in historically marginalized communities have seen how courts can protect rights and how easily they can take them away. But this is not a threat just for some of us: we’re all endangered when courts bend to the will of the powerful and privileged. And that’s exactly what Trump, Cruz and MAGA Republicans joined hands to accomplish in Trump’s last term.
By contrast, what we have seen from the Biden-Harris administration has been very different.
Over the last four years, this administration has been pushing back against the harm being done by Trump judges and the courts they control. They have nominated and confirmed outstanding, historically diverse judges like Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
At the lower court level, Biden-Harris judges have ruled to protect reproductive freedom, gun safety, workers’ rights, and the environment .
It will take time, but we can use our votes to keep this progress going.
We can vote for Kamala Harris, who will nominate more judges in the mold of Ketanji Brown Jackson – and Colin Allred, who will vote to confirm them and put an end to Ted Cruz’s disastrous years in the Senate.
I truly believe that wherever we are on the political spectrum, fundamentally, we all want our democracy to succeed. That means courts that uphold rights for all of us, not just the wealthy and powerful. With the future of our courts on the ballot this year, I believe our choices are clear.
Rep. Mary González of El Paso serves in the Texas House of Representatives, where she represents House District 75.
The post Opinion: Our federal courts are one more reason to vote in this election appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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