Happening now: Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on voting rights. First witness is ⁦@ReverendWarnock⁩. Now that’s a powerful beginning to a hearing addressing all the current challenges to full participation in our democracy. .@LindseyGrahamSC opens remarks at hearing with statement that we don’t need a new Voting Rights Act bc voter turnout is up. He obviously hasn’t read @BrennanCenter new report that racial gap in turnout is growing & particularly in states formerly covered by heart of VRA.

Tonight’s #SOTU will occur on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday--March 7, 1965--when voting rights activists were attacked & beaten for trying to gain the right to vote. This is a powerful & momentous occasion, and @POTUS should center the protection of democracy in his remarks. Since SCOTUS gutted the heart of Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, states have passed 100+ laws restricting the vote in every way, shape & form. In the decade since Shelby, we’ve seen voting discrimination change form and become even more pervasive and pernicious.

How many people know Fred Gray--lawyer to Rosa Parks & Dr. Martin Luther King--testified against Samuel Alito's nomination to SCOTUS? Here are excerpts from his testimony.

https://twitter.com/splcenter/status/1523688687610916864

“I am honored to appear before this [Judiciary] Committee. For 50 years, I have filed lawsuits that resulted in SCOTUS’s declaring segregation & discrimination in many areas of law to be unconstitutional, including voter registration & reapportionment.”

There's not been enough attention on how @SenatorSinema's failure to ensure passage of voting rights bills is harming her own constituents. Communities of color represent 45% of Arizona's population. It's their voting rights which are at stake. Arizona has a long and sordid history of discriminating against voters that continues with intensity today. It is one of the 19 states that notoriously passed voter restrictions last year, and it wasn't just one bill.

Here's what Senators think about McConnell bringing back Senate during COVID danger period to confirm more Trump judges. It's clear who wants to save American lives.

@SenSchumer: Senator McConnell should focus Senate's work on crises caused by COVID-19, not right-wing judges. .@SenBlumenthal: McConnell is bringing back the Senate to confirm judges--judges, you read that right. Not to provide real solutions to the nation's hardship & heartbreak. He's recklessly endangering Capitol workers & others for pure partisan politics.

More of this, please. Trump has appointed least diverse slate of federal judges in modern history. As we push for #JudicialDiversity in 2021, state supreme courts will play key role. But to be successful feeder courts, they need to be much more diverse. slate.com/news-and-polit… According to @BrennanCenter, 23 state supreme courts have an all-white bench. 12 are in states where people of color represent at least 20% of population. This is unacceptable. We must insist on #JudicialDiversity at every level. It’s 2020. All-white courts should be in our past.

NEW OUTRAGE: While Americans lose lives, Trump uses cover of pandemic to promote Justin Walker--already UNQUALIFIED for district court where just appointed--to nation's second highest court in DC.

He's 37 & never tried a case.

Kicker: He strongly opposes affordable health care. Remember 3 weeks ago when McConnell sent Senate home during #COVID19 crisis so he could join Kavanaugh at investiture of new Trump district judge. Guess who it was? Justin Walker, Trump's new nominee to DC Circuit. That's how long he's been a judge--investiture was 3 weeks ago.

NEW: In middle of pandemic, Trump nominates ardent vote suppressor to 5th Circuit. Cory Wilson championed voter ID, doesn’t believe voter suppression exists & attacked those who protect voting rights. Seriously.

We need more COVID tests, not more judges. whitehouse.gov/presidential-a… Wilson attacked Affordable Care Act providing healthcare to 160,000 Mississippians, as "perverse" & "illegitimate." He opposed Medicaid expansion which excluded 100,000 more Mississippians.

Nation doesn't need any more Trump judges & Cory Wilson is last thing MS needs right now.

Immediately after approving foreign interference in our elections, Senate moves to further harm our democracy by installing a Southern judge committed to suppressing votes of large segments of American people. What a day!#DefendOurDemocracy #BlockBrasher

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1225179369951440896

Andrew Brasher has worst #VotingRights record of any Trump judicial nominee, and that's hard to do.

❌Opposes VRA
❌Defended race-based redistricting
❌Opposed formerly incarcerated voting
❌Required citizenship proof to register
❌Excluded non-citizens from Census

1/ At tomorrow’s Judiciary Comm. hearing on nominee to lead Civil
Rights Division, Senate must thoroughly explore Eric Dreiband’s record 2/ Dreiband devoted most of his career to defending civil rights
violations & opposing civil rights laws and their strong enforcement