Political Quotes

“I rise to announce my opposition to the nomination of Chad Readler to be a Judge on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. As the Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Civil Division, Mr. Readler was both a lead attorney and policy adviser in the Department's decision not to defend the Affordable Care Act, including its provisions protecting individuals with preexisting conditions. Rather than defend the law and its protections for individuals with preexisting conditions, such as asthma, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, Mr. Readler's brief in Texas v. United States argued that they should be invalidated. I strongly objected to DOJ's position to not defend the law, and it is telling that this position also concerned some other career attorneys in the Department. In fact, three career attorneys withdrew from the case rather than support this position, and one of those attorneys eventually resigned. In my view, the Justice Department's severability argument is wrong and implausible. On June 27, 2018, I wrote to Attorney General Sessions and urged the Justice Department to reverse course and to defend the law's critical protections for individuals with preexisting conditions. Even the Justice Department acknowledged that it was ``rare'' for the government to refuse to defend the laws of the United States against constitutional challenges.…”