WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) today delivered a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate to support the confirmation of Louisiana native Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States.
“As a fellow Louisianan, I am proud that one of our own will become a Supreme Court Justice,” Dr. Cassidy said. “Amy, Louisiana is rooting for you. We know that you will serve our country well and make our state proud.”
View the speech on YouTube here.
Download Cassidy’s remarks here.
Cassidy’s full remarks as prepared for delivery on below.
Mr. President,
I rise today to offer my support for confirming Louisiana native Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Deciding whether or not to confirm a justice to the highest court in the land is among the most important duties that a Senator has. We must consider the qualifications of the nominee that the president puts forward to determine a nominee’s fitness to serve.
In this case, President Donald Trump made a terrific selection in Amy Coney Barrett. The Senate will vote on her confirmation in the coming days. I will proudly cast my vote to confirm her. Here’s why:
Judge Barrett is incredibly qualified to serve on the Court. She graduated summa cum laude from Notre Dame Law School, clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, spent 15 years in academia shaping a new generation of legal minds, and serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Her record and experience prove she is ready for the Supreme Court.
Judge Barrett was raised in Metairie, Louisiana and a graduate of St. Mary’s Dominican High School. As a fellow Louisianan, I am proud that one of our own will become a Supreme Court Justice. She will be only the second person from Louisiana to serve on the Court. That makes her confirmation historic.
Amy, Louisiana is rooting for you. We know that you will serve our country well and make our state proud.
It is also fitting that a woman fills the seat that opened after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s passing. We certainly had our differences when it came to political and judicial philosophy. Still, she should be recognized for her service and her lifelong pursuit of ensuring that women always have the seat at the table. Thank you, Justice Ginsberg, for your service to the United States.
Judge Barrett will be the first mother of school-aged children to serve on the court. She and her husband, Jesse, are raising seven children – two of whom they adopted from Haiti and their youngest who has Down syndrome. I admire her for being a terrific example for her children to emulate as they grow up.
Finally, I want to thank Judge Barrett for her willingness to serve. To accept a nomination to the Supreme Court is, sadly, to accept ruthless attacks from partisans seeking to score political points. Her nomination was no different.
She has repeatedly been attacked for being a practicing Catholic. She has every right to live her faith. No one in public service should be expected to cast aside deeply held religious convictions to satisfy an angry mob fabricating reasons to say “no.” Thank you, Judge Barrett, for defending your – and by extension all of our – religious liberty.
Her political enemies and some in the press intentionally mischaracterized many of her statements and twisted them in new ways to attack her. Again, fabricating reasons to vote no.
Perhaps the lowest blow in this process, however, was the attack on her children. It’s a low, low blow to bring a mother’s children into question.
Yet, Judge Barrett handled each of these attacks with grace and dignity. During her hearings, she displayed time and again that she has the skills, the demeanor and the experience to serve on the Supreme Court.
In the coming days, I will proudly cast my vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. I encourage my colleagues to do the same.
Thank you, I yield back.
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