What it was like to be arrested at the Kavanaugh hearings for standing up for our beliefs and for CREDO’s values

“This is an attack on women’s rights and an attack on democracy. Shut this hearing down now!”

“Americans are scared. That’s why we’re here. We cannot go back.”

That’s what we shouted when we stood up inside the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room this Tuesday during the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, seconds before we were pulled away in handcuffs by Capitol Police.

We were arrested fighting the nomination of Trump’s extreme Supreme Court pick – and we would do it again.

You can watch the video here.

Many people have asked us what it was like to get arrested for standing up for what we believe in. We’ll be honest – it was empowering, but it was also emotional and downright frightening.

The hardest part, after waiting for what felt like an eternity to enter the hearing room was that last moment before each of us decided to stand up. We saw what happened to the people before us. We knew that the Capitol Police would drag us out — literally drag — and we could see all the disapproving looks of the people around us. But when Senator Grassley continued saying things so outrageous and wrong about Kavanaugh’s record, he actually inspired us further.

Once we stood up, the words came flooding out. This nomination hearing could not continue without us speaking up to say that this is not right, that his nomination is a threat to our democracy and that we were here to stand up and defend it.

But our arrests have not been the only action we’ve taken this week to prevent Kavanaugh’s elevation to the Supreme Court.

This act of civil disobedience is just one tactic in our long and public fight to stop a criminal co-conspirator from stacking the court with another right-wing extremist who will greenlight Republican attacks on women, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ people, people of color, workers, the environment and our democracy as whole.

We’ve known that the only way to stop Trump from installing Kavanaugh on the bench would be to ensure that every single Senate Democrat stands together in opposition, and the responsibility to hold his caucus together falls directly on Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer who has been failing miserably at his job.

That’s why we sent a scathing letter, along with a number of our allies, to Schumer on Wednesday urging him to immediately unite all Senate Democrats in opposition to Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

We’re pretty sure Schumer hasn’t been able to avoid the progressive pressure on him given all our coverage in The New York Times, POLITICO, HuffPost, The Hill, ThinkProgress and more.

But that’s not all.

To ensure Schumer got the message loud and clear that progressive activists would not allow him to sidestep his responsibilities, CREDO Action members drove a mobile billboard around Capitol Hill for eight hours a day, calling on Schumer to keep Senate Democrats united in opposition to the Supreme Court nominee.

This overwhelming pressure and resistance to stop Brett Kavanaugh has only been possible because of CREDO members who are standing up to Trump’s destructive, extreme and dangerous agenda to reshape the judiciary and our democracy.

Over 250,000 CREDO members have signed petitions calling on Senators to reject Kavanaugh’s nomination, and more than 3,000 CREDO members have placed calls to Schumer’s office. And CREDO customers who use our products every day are helping to directly fund this activism. Thank you.

We know this is a cause worth fighting for, and we’re not letting up any time soon.