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Ahead of the Senate’s anticipated vote on the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court, sexual assault survivors Michelle Hurd, Ashley Judd, Padma Lakshmi, and Mira Sorvino issued the following statement:

“Our stories are different, but our experience as survivors of sexual violence united us in saying ‘me too’ three years ago. Today, it unites us again in urging the U.S. Senate to reject the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

“Our society now demands we hold people who abuse their power accountable for sexual harassment and assault, no matter how important those people are. Yet multiple times, Judge Barrett ruled against survivors of rape, instead siding with powerful abusers and the powerful institutions that enable them. 

“We know painfully well that the systems for survivors to pursue justice are broken. They cannot be repaired and must be rebuilt. But Judge Barrett’s record shows she’d reshape the law to make it even harder for survivors to be heard and for justice to be achieved. This disqualifies her from serving on our nation’s highest court.” 

Additional Background

Judge Barrett has ruled against sexual violence survivors multiple times:

• In 2018, Judge Amy Coney Barrett joined the ruling in Martin v. Milwaukee, reversing a lawsuit filed by Shonda Martin — a 19-year-old pregnant inmate assaulted repeatedly by an on-duty Milwaukee County correctional facility guard — on the pretext that the guard was not acting in his official capacity during the multiple assaults.
• In 2019, her opinion in John Doe v. Purdue University went so far as to suggest that protections for students against campus sexual assault could lead schools to discriminate against male perpetrators by believing women survivors. This is a concept that could eviscerate protections for everyone against sexual violence.

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