10/16/20 10/16/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i moved to indefinitely postpone the nomination of amy coney barrett to be an associate justice of the united states supreme court. rush sham process is a disservice to our committee. amy: senate republicans are continuing to rush ahead with confirming supreme court justice

nominee amy coney barrett, blocking an attempt by democrats to postpone the process. we will speak to kristen clarke, the head of the national lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. she testified at the hearing.. >> we have conductcted an exhaustive review ofof judge barrett's writingngs and decisis during her time onhe courtrt. theews are far outde mainstream. amamy: plus, we hear thehe testy of a mother frfrom west virgini, who once had an abortion, on why she opposeses the confirirmatiof amy coney rrett. >> president trurump has been clear he would only appointt justiceses who would overturn re v. wade. ununfortunately, i in leaing abt judgdge barrett's record, i undederstand why the president believes she passes the tetest. please, listen n to p people who have had abortions. hearars when we ask, do not confirm this nominee. amy: all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the united states is approaching 8 million confirmed coronavirus 64,000ons, surpassing cases for the first time sincece july.. momore thahan 1000 covid-19 deas were reported over the last 24 hours, with every region of the u.s. rate increased hospitalizations. wisconsin set another statewide record for infections with more cases700 new coronavirus reported thursdaday. wisconsin has one of the world's highest t test positivivity rat, now over 23%. despite that, president trump is planning to hold a packed campaign rally in janesville, wisconsin, on saturday. this comes as "the wall street journal" reports throughout the line by linedemic,

edits to official health guides languagedc, altering written by scientists on social distancing and rolling back lilimits on interesting gatheris lilike church choirsrs. globally, new coronavirus infections had a new record high 330,000 40th over cases. nearly 39 million people have contracteded the virus worldwid. in france, restrictions have been stated to the entire country is growing cases threatened to overwhelm french hospitals. this comes after french police raided the homes of senior government and health officials thursday as part of an ongoing investigation into their handling of the pandemic. latin america is also seeing a massive surge of cases. brazil's death toll has surpassed 152,000 as over 5.1 million people have been infected -- the third largest number of infections after the united s states and india.

the world health organization warned thursday that the antiviral drug remdisivir fails to prevent deaths among covid- patients. the who'coconcluon i is based d a study of more th 1 11,00 patients. it follows smaller, le rirousus sdies t tt found the drug canutut theumbeber dayss covid-19 patients ee spititaled. remdisivirasas beeroututiny administeredo o covi1919 tients ithe ununed states since may,hen the a a grand the drug emeenency u authorizatio it's e e of seralal dgs administeded to esident umpp as he battled covid infection earlier this month. meanwhile, the who is warning that even in a b best-case scenario, younger, healthier people may have to wait for over a year before they'll be able to receive a vaccine against covid-19. this is dr. soumya swaminathan, chief scientist at the who. >> i t think f for the average person, a healthy young person, might have to wait until 2022 to get a vaccine.

amy: supreme court confirmation hearings for judge amy coney barrett ended thursday with the right-wing judge's confirmation looking all but assured after four rushed days of questioning in which barrett refused to state her position on abortion rights, same-sex marriage, the affordable care act, voting climate change, family separation at u.s. border, and even if president trump could delay the election. the judiciary committee is scheduled to vote on her nomination october 22. the full senate could vote on whether or not to confirm barrett as early as october 26. just about a week before election day. we will have more on this story after headlines. in north carolina,a, voters qued in lines for up to hours four thursday as early voting got underway. with less than three weeks to go before election day, a record 17 million people have already cast ballots -- some 15% of the u.s.

electorate, many of them in battleground states like pennsylvania, florida, and texas. on thursday night, democratic presidential nominee joe biden appeared on abc for a town hall event scheduled by the campaign after president trump refused to hold a second debate with biden virtually after trump tested positive for coronavirus. during the 90 minute town hall, biden blasted trump over his handling of the pandemic and urged people to wear masks and follow other public health measures. biden also defended elements of his 1994 crime bill, which led to mass incarceration in the u.s. and he said local police departments should be reformed and better funded, not defunded or dismantled. mr. b biden: we should not be defunding cops, we should be mandating the things that we should be doing within police departments and make sure there's total transparency. amy: as biden spoke, president trump appeared at a rivaval town hall event in miami florida, hosted by nbc. the network's decision to give

trump a simultaneous platform drew from nbc news anchors and journalists. columbia journalism review editor kyle pope called it a craven rating stunt. during the one-hour broadcast, trump falsely claimed 85% of people wearing masks catch coronavirus. he said he was unaware of whether he took a coronavirus test ahead of his debate with joe biden in late september, and did not deny that he is more than $400 million in debt. just would not say to who. pressed by savannah guthrie, trump refused to disavow the far right anti-semitic qanon conspiracy theory. >> let me ask you about qanon. that democratsry are a satanic pedophile ring, and you are the savior of that. can you once and for all state that that is completely not true? can you disavow qanon in its

entirety? pres. trump: i know nothing about mcewen on. doesn't tell me necessarily make it back. i hate to say that. i knknow nothihing about it. i do know w there very m much agagainst pedophphilia stotop ty fight it very y hard. amy: trump's on fbi director christopher wray as identified qanon as a domestic terrorism threat. ahead of thursday's dueling town halllls, president t trump ralld some 2000 supporters in greenville, north carolina, whwhere people p packed shoulder-to-shoulder and few wore masks. in a shocking moment, trump appeared to admit he ordered u.s. m marshals to carry out the extrajudicial killing of anti-fascist activist michael reinoehl in washington state on september 3. pres. trump: we sit in the was marshals. took 15 minutes and it was over. 15 minuteses, it was over.

we got him. they knew who he was. they did not want to arrest him. in 15 minutes, that ended. amy: last month, trump bragged about reinoehl's killing in an interview with fox news, saying there "there has to be retribution." reinoehl was believed to have killed a far rigight protester. former new jersey governor chris christie is asking americans to wear masks and to practice social distancing after he revealed on thursday that he spent a week in an intensive care unit while hospitalized with covid-19. christie is one of dozens of people, including president trump, who became infected after a white house celebration for trump's supreme court nominee in late september. in a statement, former governor christie wrote -- "i was wrong not to wear a mask at the amy coney barrett announcement and i was wrong not to wear a mask at my multiple debate prep sessions with the president and the rest of the team. i hope that my experience shows my fellow citizens that you should follow cdc guidelines in public no matter where you are

and wear a mask to protect yourself and others," chris christie wrote. u.s. workers filed nearly 900,000 initial unemployment claims last week amid fresh signs the u.s. economy is suffering lasting damage due to the pandemic. about 65 million u.s. workers have applied for some form of jobless assistance since the start of the pandemic. this comes as a pair of new studies show 8 million u.s. residents have been forced into poverty since republican senate majority leader mitch mcconnell let the cares act coronavirus relief bill expire in july. mcconnell has refused to hold a senate vote on the follow-up $3 trillion heroes act relief bill passed by house democrats in may. in kansas city, housing advocates protesting evictions during the covid-19 pandemic chained themselves to the front doors of the jackson county courthouse in an attempt to shut down the court all day and block eviction hearings. activists with the group kc

tenants have referred to evictions during the pandemic as acts of violence. in chicago, ex-police superintendent eddie johnson is being accused of repeatedly raping and abusing his former driver and fellow police officer. in a lawsuit filed late wednesday, officer cynthia donald says johnson committed shockingly violent acts of sexual assault against her for over three years and later destroyed the evidence on his cellphone when the city's inspector general launched an investigation into johnson's conduct. chicago mayor lori lightfoot fired johnson last year following mounting accusations of misconduct and after he was found asleep on the wheel after a night of heavy drinking. this comes as the chicago police department says it will only accept five of the 155 proposed changes to its use-of-force policy suggested by a group of community leaders. the 20-member group was

appointed after the may police killing of george floyd inin minnesota. in los angeles, 22-year-old basketball fan william gonzalez lost vision in his right eye early monday after he was shot in the face by a police projectile, causing his eye socket to shatter and eyeball to explode. the incident came as the lapd declared a celebration of the lakers' nba championship an unlawful gathering and moved in on revelers. other peopople were also badlyly injured by police, including a man who lost eight teeth. the university of miami used a network of surveillance cameras and facial recognition software to track down students involvevd in a protest last month against the university's decision to resume in-person classes during the pandemic. that's according to "the miami new times," which reports that after being identified in surveillance footage, the students received emails ordering them to report to university administrators for

questioning. nebraska's republican senator ben sasse tore into president trump on wednesday over his support of human rights abuses and racists, accusing trump of personally profiting from the presidency. senator sasse's remarks can be heard in a recording of a phone call with constituents published by "the washington examiner." >> the way he kisses dictators's b ignores the uighurs are in literalutts, concentration cans right now. he is not lifted a finger. the west regularly sells out our allies under his leadership. the way he treats women and spends like a drunken sailor. criticized president obama for that spending, i criticized trump as well. his family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. amy: those are the words of republican senator ben sasse.

those comments came as "the daily beast" reported right-wing media mogul rupert murdoch is predicting joe biden will defeat donald trump in a landslide. in colorado, the camameron peak fire has become the largest wildfire in colororado's histor. the fire has consumed more than 167,000 acres across fort collins, north of denver. yemen houthi rebels have begun exchanging more than 1000 prisoners with yemen's saudi-backed government in the first large-scale prisoner swap since civil war erupted in 2014. u.n. envoy martin griffiths hailed the exchange as an important milestone toward ending conflict in yemen, where years of attacks by a u.s.-supported, saudi-led coalition have exacerbated a humanitarian crisis that's pushed millions to the brink of famine. in a related prisoner exchange, more than 200 houthi supporters were allowed to return home from oman in exchange for the release of two u.s. citizens held captive by houthis. this is released american prisoner mikael gidada speaking

from oman just after his release. >> american c citizeneniving and working inin yemen. i was i in p prison for r 899 d. two years, s six months.s. years, six-month in solitary confinement. it was really hell. arrested at los angeles international airport thursday while on a family vacation. he was arrested on a warrant by the u.s. drug forstmann administration. he served as defense secretary from 2012 to 2018 under former mexican president pena nieto. the mexican magazine reports the arrest was connected to a corruption probe involving drug traffickers. he was defense secretary the time i it zoomed massacre of 43 students from a teacher's

in mexico. last month, mexican and 30's issued arrest warrants for soldiers in connection with the massacrere. and in georgia catholic priestst , a has been sentenced to 33 months in jail for breaking into the kikings bay naval susubmarie base in georgia to protest u.s. nuclear weapons policy. father steve kelly is part of the kings bay plowshares 7 -- a group of catholic peace activists who entered the base in 2018 armed with hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood, and an indictment charging the u.s. government with crimes against peace. the base is home to at least six nuclear ballistic missile submarines, each of which carries 20 trident thermonuclear weapons. father kelly has been locked up since his arrest on april 4, 2018, so he has already served nearly all of his 33-month sentence, which included time served. another member of the kings bay plowshares 7, patrick o'neill, is being sentenced today. to see all of our coverage on the kings bay plowshares, visit

democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, we look at the supreme court confirmation hearings for judge amy coney barrett. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the supreme court confnfirmatitn hearings for amy coney barrett ended thursday with the right-wing judge's confirmation looking all but assured after four rushed days of questioning in which barrett refused to state her position on abortion rights, same-sex marriage, the affordable care act, voting rights, climate chchange, and en if president trump could delay the election. if confirmed, barrett will give conservatives a 6-to-3 majority on the high court. the hearing's final day kicked

off with senate republicans in the judiciary committee voting to schedule a vote on barrett's supreme court confirmation for october 22. republican senate judiciary committee chair lindsey graham called for a vote before the hearing had even finished and without enough democrats present in the room.m. senanator dick durbin -- the soe democrat present -- attempted do adjourn the meeting in r respon. sen. durbin: mr. chahairman, you cannot cononduct bususiness wiwt anotother minonority memember p. i'm going to make a motion to adjourn this meeting until we have cocompleted the hehearing on amy cononey barret. we still have a panelelefore us. thisis is unprecedenented. we have never done this before as a committee. if we are going to honor the rules and show mutual respect, the fact is we cannot move forward. sen. graham: we've hadad this proboblem in thehe past. we are dealing with it the way we are today. if we crave t this problem in te

future, you're going t to do o t i'm going to do, which is move forward on the business of the committee, on the motion the clerk will call the role. amy: senate minority leader chuck schumer said the move solidified "the illegitimacy of this sham process." if the senate judiciary committee approves judge barrett's nomination on october -- confirmation on october 22, the full senate could vote on whether or not to confirm her as early as october 26, just over a week before election day. this has never happened before. senate majority leader republican mitch mcconnell said thursday that republicans have the votes needed to confirm her. on thursday, democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut moved to suspend the hearing indefinitely. sen. blumenthal: i move in definitely to postpone the nomination of amy coney barrett to be an associate justice of the united states supreme court. sham processs rush is a disservice to our

committee. rushed in away that is historically unprecedented. there has never been a nomination in an election year after the month of july. the purpose of doing it is simply to have a justice on the supreme court, as the president said, to decide the election and the strike down the strike down the affordable care act. we have had inadequate time to review this domination as indicated most recently yesterday, a a cnn report that there are seven more speeches or talks that she has given that haveve not been disisclosed to s committee. the consequence of this rushed process is that we have given inadequate scrutiny to this nominee. i move to delay these proceedings so that we can do our job. amy: senator blumenthal was referencing a cnn report that

revealed judge barrett did not disclose seven talks recorded on the university of notre dame law school's public calendar, including one with an anti-choice group in 2007. cnn also uncovered evidence she gave two talks in 2013 to anti-choice groups at the school. under senate rules, barrett is required to provide a list of all public talks she has given in her professional career. blumenthal''s motion to suspendd the hearing indefinitely was denied along party lines. despite outcry from democrats about the rushed nomination prprocess and hohow judge barr's role on the court could end health care for millions and threaten roe v wade, california democratic senator dianne feinstein ended the hearing thanking senate judiciary chair lindsey graham for his leadership. sen. feinstein: mr. chairman, i just want to thank you. this has been one of the best set of hearings i have participated in, and i want to thank you for your fairness.

amy: the 87 year-old ranking democrat then hugged graham, who has refused to be tested for the coronavirus. neither of them wore masks. well, for more, we go to washington, d.c., where we're joineded by kristen clarke, president and exexecutive direcr of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. she testified at judge barrett's hearing on thursday. welcome back to democracy now! why don't you start off, as this is just after you yourself have testified remotely because of covid at this hearing, start off by talking about the significance of what you heard this week and also what has actually taken place here, the unprecedented nature ofof this taking place as people are voting all over the country for the next president of the united states. >> thank you for h having m me. this is a historic nonomination

becaususe this has never happend before. we have never had a president put forth a a nomination n and commmmence confirmation hearings in t the middle of an ongoing presidential election. according to michael mcdonald,d, who ruruns the e elections projt as of yesterday, about 20 millllion ameriricans have cast their ballots. for many of thosose americans, those may be people for whom the susupreme coururt is top of min. those arare people who are exercisingng their right to determine who will be president and who will sit in those senatorial seats to carry out the constitutional r role of fifilling a supreme court vavacc throughoutut our nation's histo, presidents have respepected the fact that the voters deserve voice in this process, which is why we have never seen a nomination take place at this moment. there are two instances that senator graham talked about in

which vacancies were filled late in the year. those were vacancies filled by presidents who were actually reelected, one of whom was reelected and that president's party also gained a deeper majority in the senate. i want to underscore how unprecedented this moment is because you u truly politicicizs the suprpreme court i in dangers ways, ways that may undermine safeublic's confidence and in the court. we canannot ignore president trump's objective here. he has made very clear that he wants a full nine-member court to decide any disputes which he and -- anticipates may or may not arise from the selection. he wants a nine-member court in place by november 10 to hear the affordable care act case. this weekeavy

throughout the hearings. i thought what happened yesterday morning was incredibly important. senator blumenthal put forth a motion to suspend the process. they raceded forward this week n the middle of a a pandemic. they statarted the p process ona fededel holiday.. they d did so while the senate s actually in rececess. they have turned attentition awy from t the emergency n needs t e public faces in the middle of the pandemimic to turn attention to this. as you n noted, itit is continug to s service their are aspectstf her recocord that t have notet surfaced. the senator's motion ultimately failed and the hearing went forward, but i thought it was we had anyhat opportunity to shine a light on what a broken process this is, what a rushed process this is. we are talking about a lifetime seat on our nation's highest court, and that should be a seat

filled after the s senate isis e to carefly -- carefully c carry out its duty to prorovide advice and consent by thoroughly looking at and examining every aspectct of her record, , leavio stonone unturned. amy, my organization, the lawyers committee for civil rights under law, conducted a thorough examination of her record, at least the record that has been made public. we looked at her speeches during the time of notre dame, her writings, and her opinions during her short tenure on the seventh circuit. we found she failed the second prong of our standard, which looks to determine whether or not the nominee is someone who will bring an exceptional commitment to enforcement of our federal civil rights laws and the constitution. what was really striking this week was to see judge barrett go to great lengths to distance herself from the reality of

voting discrimination that we face in our country. she was asked basic questions, is voter intimidation illegal? she would not agree to this proposition. voter intimidation is plainly illegal under section 11 b the voting rights act. it violates federal criminal laws. she was asked whether voting discrimination is ongoing. this was during questioning with senator harris. she refused to answer that question. amy: i want to go to her questioning on this issue by minnesota democratic senator amy klobuchar. sen. klobuchar: lester get contractor from outside of my state of minnesota started recruiting poll watchers with special forces experience. to protect polling locations in my state. this was clear voter intimidation. similar efforts are going on around the country solicited by

president trump's false claims of massive voter fraud. so as a result of his claims, people are trying to get poll watchers, special forces people, to go to the pulse most of judge barrett, under federal law, is it illegal to intimidate voters at the polls? hon. barrett: senator klobuchar, i can't characterize the facts in a hypothetical situation and i can't apply a lot to a hypothetical set of facts. i can only decide cases as they come to me, litigated by parties on the full record after fully engaging precedent, talking to colleagues, writing an opinion. so i can't answer questions like that. amy: that is judge barrett. the significance o of this response, kristen clarke? >> there's nothing hypothetical about voter intimidation. wewe are in the middle of an election season whwhere w we knw voter is a alive and welell. we have heard the reports about intimidating poll watchers, showing up at satellitete leadig centers in philadelphia.

voter intimidation sally has been a stain on our democracy througut our nation's history. so it was deeply troubling that judge barrett was unwilling to acknowledge basic aspects a abot american life, that the right to vote essential but the right to vote has been under attack for black people, latinos, and for communities of color. that voter i intimidation is re. i could accept aspects of her response that i need to actually look at particular scenario in order to determine whether or not it violates the constitution or federal law, but to not tell the american public that she would come to the bench with a basic understanding that votingg discrimination is real, that voter intimidation does happen, is deeply, deeply trtroubling. amy: i want to turn to another issue that is so deeply concerning people all over this

country, and that is the issue of reproductive rights. whether we're are talking about ivf or infertile couples or whether we are talking about the issue of abortion. testified about her experience having an abortion, expressing concerns that barrett's confirmation would limit access to safe, affordable care. during three days of hearings, judge barrett repeatedly refused to answer questions about her views on abortion and the future of roe v. wade despite her public record opposing reproductive rights. thisis is od's s opening statement. >> my name is crystal good. i amam six genereration wawas virginian. writer, poet, small bususiness owner, graduate e student at wet virgininia university andnd adve for survrvivors of sexual l abu. i am a daughter r of a white mother and a black father. i i am the proud mother of three brilliant children. these identities are allll parts of me, but n not all of me. who i am t tod is only possible

bebecause at 16 years old, i had access to an abortio as a a minor in a state with a parentntal consent requiuiremen, that access was depependent on a judgee because without a shadoww of a doubt, i coululd not trtrut the adultss closest to me. from the ages of fifive until i was 15, i was sesexually a abusy my whitete stepfatather. he was not c convicted until 20. more than 30 years aftfter the ababuse began. when i told d the grown fofolksn my life, they did not believe me at firirst and then refused d to hold him accountable once e the truth was out. later at 16 while in a rerelationship t that broughghty anand made me feel safe, i i, le 2.7 millilion ameriricans here e had an unintended prpregnancy. immediately, i knew i wanted ann abortion. very safe, medicical procedure that onenen four u.s.s. women wl haveve in their lilifetimes. for r ma reaeasons, including te

decacade of abubuse she did not protect me from, i could n not y momother. and ththat, i sosought a judicil bybypass. i had too navigate e not only hw to get to the judge, but h how o do so onon a schooool day. i had no idea what i should wear or what information hehe wouldld wantnt. i thought i was going to cocourt like o on tv. but instead, i was u ushered ino his chambers. it felt veryry intimidatining. i told d m i was a good student. i was a leader in my school. i had opportunitities that manyy young women from west vivirginia did not. wanted to go to cocollege to bee a writerer. i saiaid, your honor, i haveve a fututu. i choosese an abortion.. felt t like a miracle i in adut believed me, an authority figure deemed to be t to be i in chargf my own b body and my own fututu. i s still thihink what might hae happppened if i did notot have a list of accomplishments were at the e judge did not think i was confident enough t to start my thely, or if you believed

harmful stereotypepe i was raisd to believe that black girls were passed a and promiscuous. access to an abortioion should t depend on ouour gpa, ththe colof our skin, whehere we live, , ore luck o of the draw. it should not depend on anyy shape, form, orr fashionon who r governoror i is who is sitting n the supreme court.t. my entire childhood is every adult in my life has killeled m. none of ththem deserve t to maka decision aboutut my body. i i needed compassion and trust for r my government. all i got was another barrier. ththere arare thousands like meo are sexualally abusedd b by par, guardianans, grorown-ups who aro support them. today, 37 statates require parentalal consent or notifificn fofor a minor to access abortio. most youngng peoplple to i invoe their paparents in their decisi, but for those like me who cannot , these kinds of reststrictions make abobortion hard to get. bebecause we have toto travel, s work or school, save e up for

weeks s and pay out-of-pocket.t. the e average per capita incomen gives virginia i is 25,40400 josh 17 of your sesenate salari. integer appapalachia, b black ad low-income w white peoplple stre to accs hehealth care, i includg abortion. and to have our decisions respecteted. the suprpreme court has s de historic decisisions uphold our rights and freedoms. my right to anan abortioion othe integration ofof my public schos , ththe affordable health care t that ensnsures i have health insurancnce, a workplacece protectiononfor my traransgender daughthter. i have p put my faith in t the supremee couourt. and with t this nomination, i am losing faith. although the wayay i havave chon to creatate my family is demonid by somompoliticians, the r realy is t that we are like m most falies across s the nation. i i had an abortrtion. i h have two sons and a daughter

who is trans. i love my c children. we are a proud family comeme african-amamerican appalachian. my story is mymy own but rerepresesents so many peoplplet out from the suprpreme courtt nomiminee hearings. -- ann entire c castor people the peoplple. president trump has been n clear he wilill only appoint jusustics who will overtrturn roe v. wade. unfortunately, through learningg ababoujudge barretett's record,i understatand why the president bebelieves she passes the test. pleasese, listen to peoplple who have had a abortionsns. hear us when we ask you, do not confirm this nominee. our future and our family y come our lives depend on it. ns. totoo, are america amy: that is crystal good testifying against amy coney barrett who once signed a newspaper advertisement that

stated "it is time to put an end to the barbaric legacy of roe v. wade and restore laws that protect the lives of unborn children." kristen clarke, i would ask you about this, particularly in light of what judge barrett said in 2006 at a commencement address at notre dame. she said, "keep in mind, your legal career r is but a means to an end and as father jenkins told you this morning, that end is building the kingdom of god." kristin? >> if confifirmed, judge barrett will be a fifth vote to eviscerate the important protections that have been afforded by roe v. wade. i thought crystal good's testimony yesterday was incredibly powerful. it was courageous of her to

share her personal testimony. it is an experience shared by so many women across our country who rely on the courts precedent in roe to ensure their dignity, to ensure their ability and freedom to make theheir own personalal choices about their bodies. i believe that s senator graham freely described judge barrett as pro-life stop we lookok at her record and in addition to that petition that youou reference, amy, wrote an article -- there was an article that appeared in 2013 in the notre dame magazine that referenced the speech that she gave called "roe at 40." they described herer of speaking of roe as a case that created through judicial fiat, a framework of abortion on demand in a political environment that was already liberalizing abortion state-by-state, igniting a national controversy. there were moments where she was

asked whether she deemed roe v. wade super precedent. she refused to subscribe that label to the decision. and some of the cases that have come before her on the seventh circuit hahave made clear that e has deep skepticism about roe. i bebelieve e if confirmed, shel be the fifth vote that chips away of not got an roles back the important protections long afforded by roe v. wade. amy: kristen clarke, in your testimony yesterday, you talked about issues of racial justice, v vicularly the case of smith illinois department of transportation. a worker there and the n-word. describe why you f felt this was so crititical. >> i felt it w was important to bring these cases out because theyey show a patternrn, a pattn in which she has tended to put the interest of corporations and

employers over the interests of vulnerable employees. smith versus i illinois s depart of transportation ininvolved a black traffic patrol driver who alleged he was subjected to a hostile work environment. among the various pieces of evidence presented in the case was the fact he was subjected to use of the n-word in the workplace repeatedly. judge barrett did concede that the n-word is "egregious racial epithet," but ultimately concluded this was not enough to prove that he was subjected to this sort of racial hostility that was enough to prove viirimination under title in this case. there was another case that we have heard about during the week, eeoc verersus autozone. this is a case i involvingng autotozone's decision to assign workers to different sites

based on their race. they would assign black workers to particular stores based on race of the employee and based on the preredominant race of employees served, and did the same with tino's. -- with latinos. and herere the client who was at the center of this case was a black worker assigned to the south side of chicago. ultimately, , the court found employees werere still paid the same and received the same benefits and had the same job responsibilities, so judge barrett refused to rehear the case. but i think that is very dangerous. this is autozone, essentially putting in a separate but equal racial doctrine in t the workplace. ii thihink the sum total of thee two cases makes clear she will likely look at cases involving

allegations of discrimination with great skepticism and will likely always -- if not the majority of the time -- side with corporations and employers. that is unfortunate. as a civil rights lawyer, we bring cases on behalf of vulnerable communitieses to the court and do so hopiping that ,gregious facts like this racialal policies, racial segregation in the workplace, use of the n-word -- these are the kind of smoking gun cases that we seek to bring to the courts to vindicate the rights of those most vulnerable in our society. amy: kristen clarke, we want to ask if you will stay with us. you're talking about corporate power. in the next segment, we're going to play an excerpt of the rhode island senator sheldon whitehouse who takes us on a journey following the dark money trail anand h how it has reshapd

the nation's judiciary, then we want to get your final comments stop kristen clarke is the executive director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quaranante report. i'm amy goodman. we continue our coverage of the now concluded hearings for supreme court justice nominee amy coney barrett. we turn to democratic senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island. on tuesday, he opted not to ask judge barrett any questions most instead he gave a 30-minute presentation on how right-wing groups, including the federalist society and judicial crisis network, have e used dark moneyo reshape the nation's judiciary. this is an excerpt. sen. whitehouse: my experience around politics is when you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look

for power in the shadows. now, people may say, what does all this matter, this is a political parlor game, it's no big deal. well, there's some pretty high stakes here that we've been talking abouout here on our side and i'll tell you three of t thm right here -- roe versus wade, obergefell, and the obamacare cases. in all cases, there is big anonymous money behind various lanes of activity. one lane of activities through the conduit of the federalist society. it's managed by a guy, was managed by a guy named leonard leo, and it has taken over the selection of judicial nominees. how do we know that to be the case? because trump has said so. over and over agaiain his whwhie house counsel said so. so we have an anonymously-funded group controlling judicial selection run by this guy leonard leo.

then in another lane, we have again anonymous funders running through something called the judicial crisis network,k, which is r run by y carrie severino ad it's doing pr and campaign ads for republican judicial nominees. it got 17 million -- single $17 million donation in the garland/gorsuch contest. it got another single $17 million donation to support kavanaugugh. somebody, perhaps the same person, spent $35 million to ininuence the e makeup o of the united states supreme court. tell me that's good. and then over here, you have a whole array of legal groups also funded by dark money which have a different role. they bring cases to the cocourt. they don't wind their way to the court,t, your honor, they geget shoved to the court by these legal groups, many of which ask to lose below so they can get quickly to the court to get their business done there.

and then they turn up in a chorus, an orchestrated chorus of any key. now, i've had a chance to have a look at this, and i was in a case actually as an amicus myself. the consumer financial protection board casase. and in that cacase there were o, two, t three, four, five, six, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 amicus briefs filed and every single one of them was a group funded by something called donors trust. donors trust is a gigantic identity scrubbing device for the right t wing so that it says donorsrs trust is the donor without whoever r the real donor is. it doesn't have a business. it doesn't have a business plan. it doesn't do anything, it is just an identity scrubber. and this group here, the bradley fououndation, fununded eight out of the 11 briefs. that seems weird to me when you

have amicus briefs coming in little flotillas that are funded by the same grououps but nominiy separate in the court. so actually attach this to my brief as an appendix. center for media and democracy saw it and they did better work. they went on to say which foundations funded the brief writers in that cfpb case. here's the bradley foundation, for $5.6 million to those groups. here's donors trust, $23 million to those brief writing groups. the grand total across all the dononor groups was $68 million o the groups that were filing amicus briefs pretending that they were different groups. and it's not just in the consumer financial protection board case. you might say, well, that was just the one-off. here's janus, the anti-labor case that had a long trail through the court. through friedrichs and through knox and through other decisions.

and source watch and propublica did some work about this. here's donors trust and donors capital fund and here's the bradley foundation. and they totaled giving $45 million to the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 1010, 11, 12, , 13, 14, ,5 groups thahat filed amicus bries pretending to be different groups. and both of the lawyer groups in the case. funded by donors trust, funded by bradley foundation in janus. this is happening over and over and over again. and it goes beyond just the briefs. it goes beyond just the amicus presentations. the federalist sociciety -- rememember this group that is acting as the conduit and that donald trump has said is doing his judicial selection? ththey're getetting money from e sasame donatations. 60.7 millionrust,

dollars. from the bradley foundation $1.37 million. , from the same group of foundations, total $33 million. so you can start to look at these and you can start to tie them together. the legal groups, all the same fundnds over andnd over agai bringing the cases and providing this orchestrated chorus of amici. this is to be a pretty big deal. i have never seen this around any court i have ever been involved with that there is this much dark money and this much influence being used. here's how "the w washington pot " summed it up to remake the nation's court. $250 million dark money operation, which is another piece of it.

and that is, not what is ahead of us, but what is behind us. what is behind us is now 80 cases, mr. chairirman. 80 casesnder chiefef jusce roberts that have these characteristics. one, they were decided five bebefore by a bare majajority. two, the five beforere majority was -- five to f four majority s partisan in the sense that not one democratic appointee joined the five. i refer to that group as the roberts five. itit changes a a little bit, ash justice scalia's death, for instance, but there's been a steady roberts five that has delivered now 80 of these decisions. and the e last charactcteristicf them is that there is an identifiable republican donor interest in those cacases. and in every single case,hat donor inteterest wonon. it is important to look k at whe those cases went because they're not about big public issueues le getting rid of the affordable

care act, undoing roe versus wade, and undoing same-sex marriage. they're about power. and if you look at those 80 decisions, they fall into four categories over and over and over again. one, unlimited and dark money in politics. citizens united is the famous one but it's continued d sense with mccutcheon. and we've got one coming up now. next, knock the civil jury down. whittle it down to a nub. the civil jury was in the constitution, in the bill of rights, in our darn declaration of independence. but it's annoying to big corporate powers because you can swagger your way as a big corporate power through congress, you can gogo and tell the president you put money into to elect what to do. he'll put your stoogeges at the epa. it is all great until you get to the civil juryry because they he

an o obligation, as you know, judge babarrett. they have anblbligation ununder the e law toto be fair tboboth parties irrespective of their size. you can't bribe them. you're not allowed to. it is a crime to tamper with the jury. it's standard practice to tamper with congress. third, first was unlimited dark money, second was demean and dimininish the civil jury, thihd is weaken regulatory agencies. a lot of t this money, i'm convinced, is polluter money. the koch industries is a polluter. the fossil fuel industry is a polluter. who else would be putting buckets of money into this and wanting to hidide who they are behind donors trust or other schemes? and what if -- if you're a big polluter, what do you want? you want weak regulatory agencies. you want ones that you can box up and run over to congress and get your friends to fix things for you in congress.

and the last thing is in politics, in voting. why on earth the court made the decisionon, a factual decision, a f ftual -- not something appellate courts ordinarily are suppososed to makeke as i underd it, judge barrett -- the factual decision that nobody needed to worry about minority voters in pre-clearance states being discriminated against or that legislators would try y to knock back their ability to o vote. these five made that finding in shelby county against bipartisan legislation from both houses of congress, hugely passed, on no factual record. theyey just decided that t thats a problem that was over. on no record, with no basis, because it got them to the result that we then saw. what followed state after state after state passed voter suppression laws. one so badly targeting african-americans that t two

courtsts said it was surgically, surgically tailored to get after minority voters. in all these areas where it is about political power for big special interests and people who want to fund campaigns and people w who want to get their y through politics without actually showing up, doing it behind donors trust and other groups, doing it through these schemes. over and o over and over again u see the same thing. 80 decisions, judge barrett. somemething isis not right aroud the court. and dark money hasas a lot to do with it. special interests have a lot to do with itit. donors trust a and whoever'ss hiding behind donors trust has a lot to do with it and the bradley foundation orcrchestratg its amici over at t the court hs a lot to d do with it. amy: that is democratic senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island speaking at the supreme

court juststice confirmation hearings for amy coney barrett. talking about how dark money has reshaped the nation's judiciary. in these last few minutes, we're still with k kristen clarke, president and executive direrecr of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. she also testified in the last day of the hearings. this dark underscore money trail and what it has meant for your work. and include in this come as we wrap up for the week, we are in the voting season. it is not just election data more, something like 15% of the electorate has already voted. many new voters. the obstacles that are beingng t in their way. >> i t thought that sesenator whitehouse's rememks weree incredibly important. we need d to pull back the veil. we need to shine a light and have more transparency on how the federalist society and

donors network and all of these other related organizations operate. they have become a powerful, wewell-funded force in n terms f transforming the court. as a a civivil rightss orgrgani, we have become deeply concerned about the group they have on the judicial nomination process. we have seen them put forth nominenees who are n diviverse. they have rolled the clock back on racial and gender diversity in our federal courts. we have seen nominees whose records reflect extremism, nominees who are far outside the thestream so understanding funding trophy these organizations is incredibly important. it is a reminder about the devastating 2010 supreme court decision in citizens united, which has m made transparency wn it comes to donationsns all the more dififficult.

to y your question, a amy, that where we are right now, we are right t now, we'rere in the mide of a a pandemic that has upended elections across our country, but it has been remarkable to see the secretaries of state in a number of places really be very proactiti in recogngnizing that fact. secretaries of state that have lifted some of the barriers and burdens that voters face when it comes to accessing absentee ballots, when it comes to notary and witness requirements for voters who may be quarantined at their home because of their health. but organizations like mine, lawyers committee for civil rights under law, have been working day and night in the courts to address some of those states that i failed to lift the barriers -- that have failed to lift thehe bears. some incnclude taxes, georgia, tennessee,e, and others. my hopope is that all voters who want t to have voice will be abe to do so in the days that remain

under the 2020 alexion. amy: kristen clarke, thank you for being with us, president and executive director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. that does it for our broadcast. in these last days leading up to the final election

♪ host: water cannon laced with chemicals sprayed on crowds in thailand during another day of protest demanding political reform. ♪ host: this is al jazeera. the risk of eight no deal exit grows. a spokesman says talks with the eu are over. a schoolteacher isis