Al Franken: “I rise today to talk about Americans' basic right to have their day in court. The Supreme Court has always been a…”

“I rise today to talk about Americans' basic right to have their day in court. The Supreme Court has always been a towering institution, both physically and metaphorically. Until recently, as visitors walked up the steep steps of the Supreme Court's front doors, they entered underneath a mantle inscribed 'Equal Justice Under Law.' Now those bronze doors are closed to the public. That may have been because of security concerns, but it is hard to imagine a better metaphor for what has been happening to our Court. The Roberts Court has consistently denied hard-working people their day in court, blocking them from their entrance to the courtroom. Many of my colleagues remember me speaking on the Senate floor about Jamie Leigh Jones. As a 20-year-old, she went to Iraq as a contractor for KBR, then a Halliburton subsidy. She complained about sexual harassment almost immediately. She was put in a barracks with 400 men and a handful of women. When she complained to KBR, they not only ignored her, they mocked her. They told her, Oh, go spend the day in the spa. Four days later, she was drugged and brutally gang raped by her coworkers and then locked in a shipping container with no contact with the outside world.”