New Jersey's two U.S. senators, Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, warned that President Donald Trump's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court would cast the deciding vote to end abortion rights.
Speaking at a rally Monday in Newark organized by Planned Parenthood, a women's health care provider that performs abortions, the two senators emphasized their opposition to U.S. Court of Appeals Justice Brent Kavanaugh, nominated to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.
"We cannot afford to let this president tip the scales of justice against women, families, patients, voters and consumers for generations to come," said Menendez, D-N.J.
Trump promised during the campaign to appoint justices committed to overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, a long-sought goal of the Christian conservatives who strongly supported him during the 2016 campaign.
Of the 26 percent of voters who described themselves as born-again or evangelical Christian, 80 percent backed Trump, according to network exit polls reported by CNN.
Booker, D-N.J., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will hold hearings on Kavanaugh before his nomination reaches the Senate floor, warned that the nominee "poses a clear threat to so many of the rights New Jerseyans hold dear, including the reproductive rights of women, voting rights, labor rights, and the right to quality, affordable health care."
"We are at a moral moment in our country, and there's simply too much at stake to stand idly by," Booker said. "We all must resolve to fight back against this nomination and cast our light by standing up and speaking out."
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.