Jovanka Beckles, candidate to represent Assembly District 15, today condemned the nomination and potential confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. “His confirmation would be a desecration of democracy,” Beckles said.
“The charges of sexual assault are only one sign of Judge Kavanaugh’s willingness to rank the importance of his own and his friends’ interests over those of people they consider beneath them.
“Kavanaugh is supported by powerful corporate lobbies especially for his consistent attacks from the bench on environmental protection, on the exercise of EPA authority to limit pollution, on wildlife protections, and upholding corporate impunity and laying the groundwork for Citizens United.”
Kavanaugh’s judicial record, as reflected in recent articles by Lee Fang and Sharon Lerner in The Intercept, demonstrates fealty to corporate interests, opposition to EPA protections of the environment, and a willingness to lie about his own actions as a judge. His decisions in appellate court laid the groundwork for the Citizens United decision that opened floodgates to corporate money in politics.
“The willingness to assault women and to lie, and his judicial inclination to permit violence against the earth and to lie, are connected,” Beckles stated. “They demonstrate his disrespect for other humans and for the planet upon which we all depend. It is no coincidence that he is powerfully backed by the fossil fuel and chemical industries in their efforts to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2007 ‘Chevron Deference’ decision” (which reinforced federal and thus EPA authority to act on implicit imperatives of regulatory legislation).
“We know in Richmond the power of Chevron’s money. And we know how our justice system has tilted in the direction of money, away from communities of color, and has permitted women’s victimization.
“We need to free our government from its corporate overseers and establish real justice not only for women and minorities, but for all people and be mindful of the earth itself.”
Beckles has been endorsed by the Sierra Club of California and eight other statewide, regional, and local environmental action organizations.