The Republican-controlled Senate on Monday night voted to confirm conservative appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States, a little over a week before Election Day.
Fifty-two senators voted to confirm Barrett and 48 voted not to confirm.
An outdoor ceremony with Trump is scheduled at the White House for 9 p.m. at which Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will administer the official Constitutional Oath to Barrett, 47, a protégée of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
“That was a good choice, wasn’t it?” Trump asked the crowd at a Pennsylvania rally earlier in the day about Barrett, a Notre Dame Law School alumna and a member of the law school’s faculty since 2002.
During the hours leading up to Barrett’s confirmation, senators from both parties took to the Senate floor, with Democrats slamming the entire confirmation process as a farce because of its proximity to the election.
“After refusing a Democratic nominee to the Supreme Court because an election was eight months away, they will confirm a Republican nominee before an election that is eight days away,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “The American people will suffer the consequences of Judge Barrett’s far-right, out of the mainstream views for generations.”
Opponents of Barrett have pointed out her association with groups that espouse anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion sentiments.
A particular concern of opponents is that New Orleans-born Barrett will overturn Roe v. Wade. But Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, said she wouldn’t expect Barrett to overturn the historical 1973 Supreme Court decision.
“I believe that, given how she outlined, not only to me but how she spoke to the issue of reliance when she was before the committee, I believe that she will look at that and weight that in any matters in any cases that come before her that take up Roe v. Wade,” the Alaska senator said.
“I don’t see her overturning the decision in Roe v. Wade, based on based on the weighting of other reliance factors,” she said.
Following Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, Barrett is Trump’s third nomination to the Supreme Court.
Source: Radio.com
