Nation split over timing on court vacancy action
Voters are split over whether the U.S. Senate should vote on President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee before the general election, though a plurality say in a new Franklin Pierce University-Boston Herald poll that they’re against a decision before Nov. 3.
In the nationwide poll of 1,003 likely general election voters, 46.6% said the Senate should not vote before Election Day on whether nominee Amy Coney Barrett, a federal appeals court judge, should fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Conversely, 40.8% said the Senate should move ahead with a vote, while 11.5% were unsure. The landline, cellphone and online poll was conducted from Sept. 30 through Oct. 4, with 38% of responses collected prior to Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis. The overall margin of error was +/- 3.1%.
Barrett garnered 40.5% approval among the respondents, including 29% who said they strongly approved of the conservative judge as Trump’s third Supreme Court pick, while 41.3% disapproved, 32.1% of them strongly, and 16.5% were unsure.
Republicans have been pushing for swift confirmation hearings for Barrett that would seat her on the bench before the Nov. 3 election.
But their timeline was thrown into question late last week after three senators tested positive for COVID-19 — two of whom are on the Senate Judiciary Committee and had attended Trump’s Rose Garden announcement of Barrett as his pick, an event that’s now being eyed as a potential spreader event for the virus.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to forge ahead with hearings even as he closed the chamber to legislating through Oct. 19 after Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin all announced they had contracted the virus. Three more Republican senators — Ted Cruz of Texas, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and James Lankford of Oklahoma — tested negative but were self isolating, cutting into the 5347 GOP majority.
Despite protestations from Democrats, Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., scheduled the hearings to start Oct. 12.
“We are full steam ahead with the fair, thorough and timely confirmation process that Judge Barrett, the court and the nation deserve,” McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday.
Liberals fear that appointing Barrett to the nation’s highest court would cement a 6-3 conservative majority that could overturn or chip away at the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
The FPU-Herald poll showed 60.6% thought Roe v. Wade should be upheld, while 18.6% did not, and 11.8% said they were not familiar with the decision.