The Supreme Court is the most important judicial body in the country. The decisions it reaches impact all Americans, even the ones that end up five votes to four. 
Since the confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court has taken a radical rightward turn. In the past 72 hours alone, it sided with big money interests against working people in an effort to destroy the union movement in this country. And it affirmed the president's Muslim ban and chose fear, racism and xenophobia over the American ideals of religious freedom and tolerance. 
Those decisions, both 5-4 votes, were only possible because of the unprecedented actions of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to deny President Obama's nominee a vote ahead of the 2016 elections. He did it because, in his own words, "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice."
Now that Justice Kennedy will retire at the end of July, Mitch McConnell should remember those words. And our job right now is to make sure he does, and to make it clear the American people want a say in Justice Kennedy's replacement.

The truth is, the American people deserve a Supreme Court justice who respects the rights of workers instead of bowing down to big business. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality in this country, we need a court that will protect workers' rights and not just concern themselves with corporate profits.
The American people deserve a Supreme Court that will move us back in the direction of one person, one vote and stop our slide into an oligarchy, in which the political life in this country is increasingly controlled by a handful of billionaire families. I fear that President Trump's next Supreme Court nominee would take the disastrous Citizens United decision even further by supporting the elimination of all restrictions on campaign finance, effectively allowing billionaires to contribute unlimited sums to candidates.
We also cannot risk a Supreme Court that would put in jeopardy the privacy rights of all Americans and a woman's right to control her own body. Reproductive rights in this country are at risk. Despite overwhelming opposition from the American people I believe there is a very strong chance President Trump's next nominee would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. We cannot allow that to happen.
The Supreme Court also recently sided with those who want to make it harder for people to vote. In the year 2018, it should not be too much to ask for people to be able to vote without harassment. Our job should be to make it easier for people to participate in the electoral process, not harder.
Now, the Koch brothers immediately pledged to spend more than seven figures pressuring Democrats into supporting President Trump's nominee. 
This time, we must be united, from the start, that there can be no vote on ANY nominee until the American people have had their chance to make their voices heard.

I believe most Americans want a Supreme Court that will stand up for civil liberties, constitutional rights, workers' rights, environmental rights and women's rights.
By now we know that is not what we will get from Donald Trump's nominee. And I believe the American people have a right to make their voices heard about that at the ballot box in November.

Please sign my petition: Tell the U.S. Senate that we should not vote on any potential Supreme Court justice until after the American people have had a chance to vote in November and a new Senate is sworn in next January.

In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders

This story was emailed June 14 by the Rural Organizing Project:

 In the last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has torn hundreds of children away from their parents and placed both in separate detention facilities across the country. The sharp increase in the number of immigrants incarcerated has led ICE to turn to five federal prisons to house over 1,600 immigrants, including many seeking asylum. 123 immigrants and asylum seekers are now unjustly detained at Sheridan Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Yamhill County, OR. To make matters worse, lawyers have been denied access to those detained inside, leaving little recourse for parents to be reunited with their children. Rural Oregonians are coming together to demand justice and an end to ICE ripping families apart. Join us on Monday for a vigil in Sheridan in solidarity with those detained behind the walls of the federal prison.
 Unidos Bridging Community, a Yamhill County-based immigrant rights organization, along with otherlocal groups, jumped into action when they heard the news that the federal prison in their county was being used to incarcerate immigrants and refugees.On Sunday afternoon, Unidos held a vigil with 52 people near the prison and they are also co-hosting a statewide vigil this coming Monday. Read more about the vigil, organized by Unidos, Rural Organizing Project, Gorge ICE Resistance, Yamhill County Democrats, Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice, Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, and Causa on the facebook event here. Check out the vigil details and other ways to support the work at FCI Sheridan below. 
Unidos and multiple local and statewide organizations are working to secure legal resources for those detained at FCI Sheridan, provide immediate support for those detained and to push back against the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy that separates parents and children. Learning from the experience of those working in the Gorge to end the ICE contract at NORCOR, they are building upon the statewide work to end of the use of public institutions and federal prisons to detain immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
  Here are the ways that human dignity groups and leaders around the state can support the work at FCI Sheridan:
  • Join the vigil on Monday, June 18th from 5:30-7:00 pm in Sheridan, OR! Oregonians from all over the state will be gathering together this Monday to demand an immediate end to the use of FCI Sheridan for detention of immigrants and refugees. Stay tuned via the facebook event for details on location.
  This is a statewide gathering, so please bring a sign that includes the name of your town or county to show our solidarity across rural Oregon. Please email [email protected] to let us know if you are attending so we can also include your county/group in the roster of participating communities.
  • Donate to support immigrants and refugees detained at FCI Sheridan: Unidos is collecting funds for phone calls and commissary items. Donate on their webpage here and include “For Sheridan” in the notes. Alternatively, you can mail a check to Unidos at 309 NE Third St. Suite 1, McMinnville OR 97128 and be sure to include “For Sheridan” in the memo line.
Support and/or volunteer as part of the legal response at FCI Sheridan: Innovation Law Lab is seeking volunteer attorneys, legal assistants, mental health providers, community resource people, interpreters and others for a coordinated legal response. Sign up here to volunteer with and support the legal response.
  • Faith leaders take action: Local clergy from Yamhill County and Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice (IMIrJ) are coordinating a faith response. If you are a member of clergy sign onto this letter to FCI Sheridan by Sunday. In addition, clergy can sign up to do a visit to immigrant and refugees detained by ICE at FCI Sheridan by sending an email to [email protected].
 Just last month, as part of ROP’s Rural Caucus & Strategy Session, rural Oregonians rallied in The Dalles to demand an end to the ICE contract at NORCOR, a local public jail. This Monday we will come together again in solidarity with immigrants and refugees detained by ICE and held at FCI Sheridan. The sharp increase in the number of people detained by ICE means that the federal agency will increasingly turn to our public institutions, local jails and federal prisons to incarcerate immigrants and refugees. Rural Oregonians across the state are resisting the use of our institutions to detain and deport our neighbors. Join ROP and Unidos on Monday for a vigil in Sheridan and stay tuned to ROPnet over the next few weeks for updates and strategies to resist ICE and fight back!
  Warmly,
  Emma, Cara, Hannah and the ROP team

Note: Sen. Bernie Sanders send out this letter on Thursday, May 1:

Subject: Disney represents much of what is wrong with contemporary capitalism.

The Walt Disney Company is an enormously profitable corporation worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 billion. Last year, it made $9 billion in profits and rewarded its CEO, Bob Iger, with a compensation package worth up to $423 million over a four year period. And as a result of the Trump tax cuts, they were given an additional $1.6 billion.

At the same time — and this is a national disgrace — employees at the company’s theme park in Anaheim, California are paid so poorly that many of them are literally living in a tent city not far from the park.

According to one recent study, nearly 1 in 10 workers employed at the park reported being homeless in the past two years, more than 2 in 3 say they are food insecure, and 3 out of 4 employees say they do not make enough money for their basic needs.

This is not what Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are supposed to be about. This does not sound like the “happiest place on Earth” to me.

Now, I could be wrong, but I don’t expect you will see the plight of these low-wage workers at Disney discussed tonight on ABC, which is owned by Disney. Nor do I think you will be hearing too much about income and wealth inequality in the mainstream media.

That is why I am heading to California this weekend to rally with these workers and union organizers fighting to demand that Disney pay all of its workers a living wage.
Those workers could use your support as well:

Please sign my petition to Disney CEO Bob Iger: The greed at the Disney Company has got to end. It is time to pay all Disney employees a living wage of at least $15 per hour. Nothing less.

It is long past time that we, as a nation, stop worshipping the corporate greed of Disney and businessmen like Bob Iger, their CEO.

While he may be regarded as a brilliant and successful businessman among his peers in the financial, media, and political elite, the truth is that the way Bob Iger and Disney treat their workers represents much of what is wrong with contemporary capitalism.

This is a company, and a CEO, that accepted an obscene tax cut gifted to them by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress, publicly promised to anyone who would listen a $1,000 bonus for all of their employees, and then withheld that bonus from some union employees unless they agreed to a contract that gave them a tiny raise to a wage that is still a starvation wage.

This is a company, and a CEO, that in addition to paying their workers here at home extremely low wages, employs many thousands of people in China to manufacture their products sold at Disney stores and online.

This type of greed and ruthless capitalism is not an economic model that we should be embracing. It is not to be celebrated. We can do better, and we must do better.

That is why this weekend I am heading to California to stand with Disney’s workers and to demand that Disney pay them wages and benefits which allow them to live with dignity and security.
​
I want to bring your voice with me. Make them hear the outrage that so many of us feel with regard to this type of economic exploitation.

In addition to my event with Disney workers and union leaders, I will visit Carson, California for a town hall with port truck drivers, who handle 40 percent of consumer goods and merchandise imported into our country – and warehouse workers serving the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach. These are some of the most abused and exploited workers in America, and I intend to support them and demand that they are paid a living wage with decent benefits.
The Political Revolution continues.

In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders

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