Clarence Thomas set to swear in Barrett at White House
By Morgan Chalfant
A bitterly divided Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett as the 115th justice to the Supreme Court on Monday, elevating just the fifth woman to the court in its 231-year history and one who further cements its conservative shift — a legacy that will last even if Republicans lose power in next week’s elections.
The vote was 52-48 for Barrett, President Trump’s third nominee to the Supreme Court. The 48-year-old jurist solidifies a judicial legacy for the White House and Senate Republicans that also includes dozens of younger and more ideologically conservative judges to the federal appeals courts. An acolyte of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, Barrett is certain to diverge dramatically from the woman she will succeed: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18 and was for decades an enduring icon for liberals.
The battle to confirm Barrett — whose installation occurred as more than 60 million people had already cast their ballots for president — also plunged a Senate already bruised by years of tit-for-tat skirmishes in the judicial wars into deeper partisan acrimony. Incensed Democrats charged Republicans with hypocrisy for blocking President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee for eight months in 2016 and repeatedly pointed out that no justice has been confirmed this close to a presidential election.
But Republicans asserted their raw power, muscling Barrett’s nomination through in just over four weeks and with no bipartisan support — the first time that has occurred for a Supreme Court nominee in generations and a reflection of the politicized atmosphere around judicial fights.
“Her intellectual brilliance is unquestioned,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said of Barrett on Sunday. “Her command of the law is remarkable. Her integrity is above reproach.”
The White House planned an outdoor ceremony after the vote Monday to celebrate her confirmation and Justice Clarence Thomas was expected to administer the constitutional oath. Supreme Court justices take two oaths — one to protect and uphold the Constitution, and another about judicial conduct.
Once sworn in, Barrett will solidify a 6-3 conservative majority on the court and will be in position to immediately hear contentious cases on elections and health care. A centerpiece of the Democrats’ strategy against Barrett was the pending case on the fate of the Affordable Care Act, set for oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Nov. 10. The Trump administration and Republican attorneys general argue that the entire 2010 health care law and its protections for millions of Americans with preexisting medical conditions should be invalidated.
Barrett nomination clears Senate hurdle, putting her on course to confirmation to Supreme Court
From the moment Barrett was nominated, one Democratic senator after another warned that the judge, who currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, would pose a significant threat to the Affordable Care Act, having critically written about legal reasonings that had previously rescued it.
“It’s becoming clear that we have a binary choice: We can have the Affordable Care Act, or we can have Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court,” Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said. “We can have the ACA or we can have the ACB, but we can’t have both.”
Barrett assiduously declined to hint at how she would rule on that case, California v. Texas, as well as evaluate existing Supreme Court precedents on abortion, gay rights and use of contraceptives.
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Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Monday, October 26th 2020 at 9:00PM
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