Update from Sarah Jane, September 19, 2018: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is a hero for the ages.
Evidently, the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled that hearing to air her attempted rape claim against Kavanaugh on Monday, September 24 without checking with her first.
She countered on Tuesday, September 18 by asking the FBI to examine her claim before she testifies in front of the committee.
Her request is reasonable. The FBI examined Kavanaugh before. We’d just have to put things on pause and give the agency time to look in to this.
The GOP, and Trump, are resistant because they want to ram Kavanaugh through in time to have him in SCOTUS robes before the next session begins on October 1.
You can bet that GOP Senate Judiciary Committee leader Chuck Grassley will try to wiggle out of this.
Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who had said he was uncomfortable moving forward without a hearing on Dr. Ford’s claim, is urging her to appear on Monday. On September 18, 2018, he tweeted:
When Dr. Ford came forward, I said that her voice should be heard and asked the Judiciary Committee to delay its vote on Judge Kavanaugh. It did so. I now implore Dr. Ford to accept the invitation for Monday, in a public or private setting. The committee should hear her voice.
Make it damn clear that you support Dr. Ford and her request for the FBI to examine her claim.
Now, more than ever, you need to call, and you need to recruit friends and family to call.
Cite Dr. Ford’s request to have the FBI vet her claim when you make your call.
If any of your Senators are on the Judiciary Committee, it is extra-important that you call, and extra-important that any friends and family represented by them call.
Here’s a link to the full membership of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but I will break out all the names and states further down to make it easier to figure out who represents you and people you know and love.
Link:
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/members
And here’s the broken-out list. Again, only use this to ID Senators who represent you or the home states of your friends and family. The Senators’ offices will disregard calls from non-constituents and might use them as an excuse to dismiss any pressure they’re feeling from their legitimate constituents.
The GOP Judicial Committee members:
Chuck Grassley of Iowa (he’s the current Chairman)
Orrin Hatch of Utah (he has announced he won’t run again)
Michael Lee of Utah (yes, BOTH of Utah’s Senators are on the Judiciary Committee.)
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
John Cornyn of Texas
Ted Cruz of Texas (yes, BOTH of Texas’s senators are on the Judiciary Committee.)
Ben Sasse of Nebraska (he has announced he won’t run again)
Jeff Flake of Arizona (he has announced he won’t run again)
Mike Crapo of Indiana
Thom Tillis of North Carolina
John Kennedy of Louisiana
The Democratic Judicial Committee members (know that virtually all of them if not all of them have already come out as opposing Kavanaugh, but double-check their social media feeds before calling so you can cite their own words on the matter):
Dianne Feinstein of California (she’s the ranking member, aka Grassley’s minority counterpart. She has been taking heat for ‘holding back’ Dr. Ford’s allegation when she was actually trying to honor her request for anonymity; thank her for her attempts to defend her)
Patrick Leahy of Vermont (earlier in the process, the former Judiciary Committee chairman credibly accused Kavanaugh of perjuring himself under oath during previous judicial hearings for a lower-ranking post)
Dick Durbin of Illinois
Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island
Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
Christopher Coons of Delaware
Richard Blumenfeld of Connecticut
Mazie Hirono of Hawaii
Cory Booker of New Jersey
Kamala Harris of California (yes, BOTH of California’s Senators are on the Judiciary Committee)
As I type this, Celeste Pewter (@Celeste_Pewter) has not yet tweeted an updated calling script. Please use the September 16 one given below, updating it to say:
“I am calling to ask the Senate Judiciary Committee to honor Dr. Ford’s request for the FBI to vet her claim before she gives any testimony. This is a reasonable request, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t take the time to let the FBI look in to it. Earlier, the GOP-led Senate was perfectly OK with letting Justice Scalia’s seat go unfilled for eight months. We can certainly take the time to perform the due diligence that filling a SCOTUS seat demands, even if that means breaking with the timeline that the GOP currently prefers.”
Also! Call your Senators regardless of whether they’re on the Judiciary Committee or not. If they’ve already committed to a ‘no,’ thank them. If they’re on the fence, tell them why you want them to vote ‘no.’ If they’re a ‘yes,’ do the same.
And know this, too: we could all still fail to stop Kavanaugh. But that was true yesterday, and true last week. Keep fighting. Keep calling. Keep urging friends and family to call. Keep the pressure up.
Below is the September 16, 2018 script from Celeste Pewter that references Ford and calls for no forward movement on Kavanaugh until the allegations are fully investigated. Use my language above and modify accordingly.
But! Before you pick up the phone, check her Twitter feed (@Celeste_Pewter) in case she’s posted an even more timely calling script.
Lastly, check the feed of Ben Wikler, Washington, D.C. head of MoveOn. He will have the word on any #StopKavanaugh protests popping up there. And of course there’s the nightly #KremlinAnnex protests in Lafayette Park as well.
Language from previous posts on stopping Kavanaugh appear below.
Late on September 9, @Celeste_Pewter tweeted a link to a Guardian article in which Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged he might be needed to break a potential tie in Senate voting on Kavanaugh’s nomination. If that happens, it would be the first time in history that a Vice President casts a tie-breaking vote on a SCOTUS nominee.
Link is here:
Celeste Pewter retweeted the link with this message:
I know all of this feels inevitable, but it’s NOT. The fact that Pence is saying this, shows wavering amongst the GOP. Which is significant considering the GOP have the majority. So let’s call and fight. (And no, I don’t think he’d say it as a fake-out)
Now is not the time to let up. Call. Keep calling daily until the point is moot.
Boost your Democratic Senators for bringing the fight, and pressure your Republican Senators into voting no.
Once you’ve made your calls, encourage friends and family to call their Senators, too. It’s extra-important that you ask those in red states to call and oppose the SCOTUS nomination.
Recruiting others to the cause is key. We need a ton of people calling their Senators 24/7, making it damn clear that Kavanaugh is a NO. Refer to @Celeste_Pewter’s calling script below and forward it with abandon.
Update from Sarah Jane, September 4, 2018: This post originally appeared on July 16, 2018. With the Kavanaugh hearings starting today I am making an exception to my hiatus to offer updated info on how you can #StopKavanaugh.
This is another situation we have to treat like the fight to save Obamacare. We need to mobilize massive, massive, MASSIVE pressure. You need to call your Senators every day on this, and you need to recruit friends and family to call their Senators every day. For serious.
Our friend @Celeste_Pewter has been diligently beating the drum on the Kavanaugh issue, stressing the importance of fighting back and giving options for how to do it. We at OTYCD are reproducing her September 3, 2018 string of tweets on the topic. Scroll down to learn how to support her and her work.
All: Tomorrow [September 4] is going to be tense day for all of us. Remember: NONE of you are alone. If you need a pep talk or cat pictures, ping me. Also remember: we’re all frustrated and angry with how the hearings are proceeding, but let’s focus on what we CAN do at the moment.
Our part in this can be broken down into a few steps: 1. Calling any senators we have on judiciary, and demand they question vigorously. 2. Telling our Senators to vote no. 3. Pushing for state-level protections, a la MA’s Nasty Women Act. 4. Getting 5 others to do 1-3.
If you can do a little more and are in driving distance of D.C. – consider joining the protests. Let the Senate know we’re watching. To paraphrase @benwikler, the more eyes, the better [The link goes to a Facebook page called Show Up to Stop Kavanaugh!, an event that starts at 6 pm in Washington, D.C. Also, follow @benwikler for updates on the protest]:
https://www.facebook.com/events/251262148834237/
If you’re able to watch a live stream, the Kavanaugh hearing’s live stream is here:
If you’re looking to write postcards – and I know several of you write thoughtful, eloquent messages every week, @getloudnowusa has provided excellent templates here:
https://getloudnow.squarespace.com/gln/blockbrett
And I feel like I’ve linked this a million times, but: 1. Scripts:
3. @ThisEastonLife‘s handy sheet to phone numbers for those on Judiciary [This leads to a screen shot that we can’t reproduce, but you can find it at the @ThisEastonLife Twitter home page]
4. My Kavanaugh Medium guide, but with specific focus on state-level protections [Including this as a clickable link because weird technical issues won’t allow reproduction of the URL]
Tomorrow’s going to be tough. Everything you might feel tomorrow. = 100% valid. Just remember: keep focusing on what you CAN control. And if we each do those four simple steps? Imagine 4 x 1000 or 2000. That’s a lot of collective power. Let’s get to work. Ask w/ questions.
P.S. 1. For those of you who are looking for this thread in text form, I’m formatting the TinyLetter now. 2. Don’t forget to hashtag any tweets about SCOTUS-related calls with #ICalledMyReps – @icalledmyreps will boost. Let’s share who’s picking up, staffers to ask for, etc.
Original post follows.
Call your senators and demand that they vote NO on Brett Kavanaugh, Team Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States.
First, an apology from Sarah Jane: I meant to write and queue this earlier, closer to when the nominee was named. Life and work deadlines got in the way. I can only apologize and repeat the fact that OTYCD is a part-time endeavor. Thanks for your patience.
Anyway. We know who the nominee is now, and his judicial record is as noxious as you’d expect, given that he passed muster with The Federalist Society.
We need to push back.
The fight will be hard, but not impossible. And the fight will definitely be impossible if we don’t bother to fight at all.
Your Senators need to hear from you, and you need to be firm and clear. (And polite.)
So! Call your two Senators and tell them you want them to oppose Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS nomination. Then call friends and family across the country and ask them to do the same. And keep calling as new developments emerge about Kavanaugh and his views. (We at OTYCD expect to devote future posts to this issue.)
Remember: Loud, fierce, sustained protests against Trumpcare and Trumpcare 2.0 made them fail. It was the folks who called, texted, left voicemails, and showed up to protest who made the difference. If we can make loud, fierce, sustained protests against Kavanaugh, we could sink his nomination.
Check the link below to see if either of your Senators are on the chamber’s Judiciary Committee. If they are, it is extra-important that you call. Bonus points if you do this on behalf of friends and family and update them on their own Senators.
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/members
Before you call, you should check the social media feeds of your Senators and see if they’ve issued a statement on Kavanaugh.
If they’ve already agreed to vote no, thank them for that.
If they’ve already agreed to vote yes, urge them to change their vote.
Celeste Pewter (@Celeste_pewter) got there first with great scripts on this topic. The trio you see below are a) a script supporting the McConnell rule, updated to reflect the name of the SCOTUS nominee; b) a simple ‘No on Kavanaugh’ script; and c) talking points you can use to expand on the main scripts.
Please scroll down to learn how you can support Celeste Pewter’s work.
One Thing You Can Do 