Amy Coney Barrett is poised to become President Trump’s third Supreme Court justice when the full Republican-led Senate votes on her nomination on Monday evening — just more than one week from Election Day.
Senate Republicans cleared the last procedural hurdle on a 51-48 vote to advance Barrett’s nomination to the Senate during a rare Sunday session.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-0 last Thursday to advance Barrett’s nomination to the Senate after Democrats on the panel boycotted the hearing, arguing that it was being rushed by Republicans to ensure Barrett was seated on the court by the election.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader of the Senate, said Republicans left his caucus no choice because Barrett’s “is the most illegitimate process I have ever witnessed in the Senate.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell teed up a vote for Barrett, 48, after a contentious closed-door session Friday in which Democrats used a number of tactics to delay the process.
“Let’s get on with it. Let’s do our jobs,” said McConnell. “We will give this nominee the vote she deserves no later than Monday.”
Republicans, who control the chamber 53-47, are expected to easily pass Barrett’s nomination — especially following Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) saying Saturday that she would vote for Barrett to be placed on the high court, after initially opposing it so close to the November election.
That leaves just one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins, who’s running in a tough re-election race in Maine, against the nomination.
Murkowski and Collins voted with the Democrats on Sunday.
Once the Senate gives the green light, Barrett is likely to be sworn in swiftly. The most recent addition to the court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, was sworn in just hours after his confirmation.
Trump, who also nominated Justice Neil Gorsuch, announced his selection of Barrett in a White House Rose Garden ceremony on Sept. 26, calling her a woman of “remarkable intellect and character. She is eminently qualified for the job.”
The announcement came a little more than a week after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who anchored the liberal wing of the court, passed away.
Democrats immediately called for Trump and McConnell to wait until after the Nov. 3 presidential election to allow whoever wins to make the selection.
They pointed to 2016, when McConnell refused to allow the nomination process for President Barack Obama’s pick, Merrick Garland, to proceed.
Democrats also believe that Barrett, a Catholic and federal appeals court judge in Illinois, based on her previous writings would rule against Roe v. Wade, the landmark case legalizing abortion nation-wide, and the Affordable Care Act, a case the court is expected to hear a week after the election.
She would expand the conservative majority on the court to 6-3.
Barrett defended her judicial independence during her confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month.
“Judges can’t just wake up one day and say, ‘I have an agenda, I like guns,’ ‘I hate guns,’ ‘I like abortion,’ ‘I hate abortion’ and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world,” Barrett told the senators.
Share this article:
Source: Read Full Article