Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) delivered a long speech on the Senate floor Monday afternoon decrying President Donald Trump's to-be-named Supreme Court justice nominee.
Schumer's remarks came hours before Trump's expected announcement of a nominee, which is expected at 9:00 p.m EST. The president has said his nominee would be chosen from a list compiled during his 2016 campaign, a list most recently narrowed down to four potential nominees, according to sources with knowledge of the decision.
"Enormously important issues hang in the balance," Schumer said, first mentioning "the right of workers to organize" and "the influence of dark money in our politics."
Schumer also suggested that the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which legalized same-sex marriage, was at risk. As is "the right to vote."
He further argued the fate of affordable health care and abortion rights hang in the balance with Trump's nominee, though the five justices who upheld the Affordable Care Act in 2012 in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius will remain on the Court.
"President Trump has repeatedly said that he believes Roe was wrongly decided. He's promised in his own words to nominate only pro-life judges, whose selection would result in the automatic overturning of Roe v. Wade. Those are his words," Schumer said.
The Democratic leader argued people can be sure Trump's Supreme Court nominee will be anti-Roe because of the influence of Leonard Leo, the founder of the conservative Federalist Society and the president's judicial adviser.
"Mr. Leo was not only aware of candidate Trump's preference for a Supreme Court that would reverse Roe v. Wade. He himself spent his career in pursuit of it," Schumer said.
He cited prominent conservative legal blogger Ed Whelan to back up his assertion.
"That's what we're up against here. That's why America is on tenterhooks so worried about any choice from this list," Schumer said.
The minority leader said any nominees who say they have respect for precedent–previously decided cases–should not be believed because, he argued, Justice Gorsuch overturned 41 years of precedent in the Janus case, which dramatically weakened public-sector unions.
"So when they say they will obey settled law, you can't believe it," he said.