Campaign Action
This is a good start for Sen. Joe Manchin in considering the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
As a Senator from West Virginia, I have a constitutional obligation to advise and consent on a nominee to fill Supreme Court vacancies and I take that responsibility seriously. […]
The Supreme Court will ultimately decide if nearly 800,000 West Virginians with pre-existing conditions will lose their healthcare. This decision will directly impact almost 40% of my state, so I am very interested in his position on protecting West Virginians with pre-existing conditions. […] I look forward to meeting with Judge Kavanaugh, examining his rulings and making a determination of whether to provide my consent.
In Kavanaugh, there is a potential justice who has clearly demonstrated hostility to the Affordable Care Act and who in fact, in an Obamacare case, argued that the president has the power to disregard a law he thinks is unconstitutional, even if the courts have upheld that law. Yeah, that's what he argued in a dissent on a three-judge panel in the D.C. Circuit. "Under the Constitution," Kavanaugh wrote, "the President may decline to enforce a statute that regulates private individuals when the President deems the statute unconstitutional, even if a court has held or would hold the statute constitutional."
Donald Trump believes that the protections for pre-existing conditions in Obamacare are unconstitutional. His Justice Department has argued specifically that in court in support of a bogus legal challenge to the law. It is entirely likely now that this case will reach the Supreme Court because of Trump's and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's success in packing the lower courts with Trumpists.
So Manchin's focus on this one issue is encouraging. If he wants to expand it, he can also look at the threat to Medicaid coverage posed by Kavanaugh. The challenge to Medicaid's work requirements will also probably reach the court as will other probably state efforts to undercut the Medicaid program. There are some 175,000 West Virginians who have coverage thanks to Medicaid expansion. Their healthcare is under threat, too.
In this issue alone, Manchin—and every red state Democrat—has all the cover necessary to oppose the nomination.