LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A group of protesters gathered outside the Louisville home of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell Saturday to protest his pledge to seat a new U.S. Supreme Court Justice prior to this fall’s presidential election. 

What You Need To Know

  • Protesters gather outside Mitch McConnell’s Louisville home Saturday

  • They want the senator to wait until after the presidential election to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court

  • The protests follow Friday’s death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  • McConnell refused to hold hearings for then President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland in 2016

The protesters held signs honoring the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday, and calling on McConnell to wait until after the election to fill her now-open seat. By Monday morning, most signs of the demonstration were gone. The sidewalk in front of the senator’s home, however, was still covered in messages including, “RGB was here,” “We will keep fighting” and “Women matter.”

Margaret Carreiro was at Saturday’s protest with a sign that read, “Hypocrite.”

“I felt like I had to go there just so he would know that many of us aren’t taking this lying down,” she said. 

Carreiro’s sign referenced McConnell’s 2016 refusal to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, who then President Barack Obama nominated to the Supreme Court following Antonin Scalia’s death in February of that year. At the time, McConnell said the seat should not be filled until after the presidential election. 

“I think what he’s doing is beyond hypocrisy,” Carreiro said. “It’s an insult to one’s intelligence because he keeps moving the goalposts as to his contorted reasoning and rationale.” McConnell's office did not response to a request for comment.

Despite his position in 2016, McConnell said in a statement shortly after Ginsburg’s death that “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.” On Monday morning, President Trump said on "Fox & Friends" that he expects to announce his nominee to the court on Friday or Saturday.

“The word hypocrite just stands out,” Carreiro said. “It boils down this particular instance of what he is doing to degrade our constitutional process, insults our intelligence. He’s being very destructive.”

This is not the first time in recent weeks that protesters have gathered in front of McConnell’s Highlands home. In mid-June, a group of young people occupied the sidewalk outside his home with a banner reading "Breonna couldn't sleep. Neither should Mitch," a reference to Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old who was killed by police in her home last March. 

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