For Chuck Schumer and his family, replacing RBG is personal.
The Senate Majority Leader cited his daughter’s visceral fear that her own same-sex marriage could be undone by a future Supreme Court run by a majority that opposes marriage equality for LGBT people.
Schumer said he was celebrating Rosh Hashanah with his daughter, Alison, and her wife when they heard the news that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died.
The two women immediately asked a question that would be unthinkable for any straight married couple.
“They asked: ‘Could their right to marry be undone?’” Schumer related in a biting and emotional Senate speech.
Alison Schumer, 31, who works in marketing, married Elizabeth Weiland two years ago.
Although same-sex marriage has quickly become a widely accepted facet of American life, it’s only been the law of the land for five years.
RBG was among a narrow 5-4 majority on the nation’s top court that cleared the way for marriage equality, and the court is far more conservative now than it was then.
A far right-wing 6-3 majority including a conservative judge appointed by President Trump might easily roll back that right or others.
Schumer stressed the high stakes for millions of Americans who stand to lose health coverage if an RBG-less Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare and the danger that women will lose their right to choose, along with voting rights and gun control.
But when it comes to his own daughter’s marriage, Schumer sounded every bit like an angry father.
He derided Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for throwing decency out the window to undo the progress for same-sex couples, even after the GOP leader spoke graciously about RBG’s legacy.
“The kind words and lamentations are totally meaningless if he moves to tear down everything Justice Ginsburg built,” Schumer declared.
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