In a new op-ed in The Hill, PFAW Senior Fellow Elliot Mincberg ties Donald Trump’s updated short list of potential Supreme Court nominees to the threat they would pose to Americans’ access to health care if any of them are confirmed.

Mincberg writes:

“Banking on a gambit that helped push him over the finish line with ultra-conservative voters in 2016, Donald Trump has released an updated list of individuals he would nominate to the Supreme Court if reelected — and you don’t have to look far to see the existential threat they pose to the future of health care and the Affordable Care Act.

One of the most troubling features about the judges and justices President Trump has already put on the bench, with the help of Senate Republicans, has  been their strong opposition to access to health care and the ACA. This is part and parcel of the Republican strategy to dismember the law in the courts, having failed to strike it down legislatively.

Trump and Senate Republicans have failed in their efforts to repeal the ACA in Congress … so instead, they have turned to appointing judges who they hope will mandate their anti-ACA agenda in the courts. Adding one of these new Trump short-listers to the Supreme Court, which is considering the constitutionality of the ACA this fall, would further endanger the law and health care access, and possibly put an end to it forever.

Trump’s attempt to fire up his base by releasing his new list should instead further encourage all Americans to make sure he does not get a second term. Especially in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, gutting Americans’ access to health care is simply unconscionable, and this new Supreme Court short list is a transparent attempt to do so.”

Read the full op-ed here.