Barrett nominated
GOP hopes for confirmation before Election Day; Trump wants nine justices to decide any voting cases
WASHINGTON – Seizing an opportunity to consolidate conservative control of the Supreme Court, President Donald Trump on Saturday nominated federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana to replace the late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The nomination, overwhelmingly popular among conservatives, comes as Trump trails Democratic nominee Joe Biden in most polls and gives him a chance to change the national conversation from the coronavirus pandemic, racial justice and a troubled economy.
In a Rose Garden ceremony, Trump called Barrett “one of our nation’s most brilliant and gifted legal minds.”
“She is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty
“I fully understand
that this is a momentous decision for a president. I love
the United States, and I love the United States Constitution. I am truly humbled by the prospect of serving on the Supreme Court.” Amy Coney Barrett
to the Constitution,” he said.
Barrett paid homage to Ginsburg as well as the job she will inherit.
“I fully understand that this is a momentous decision for a president,” she said. “I love the United States, and I love the United States Constitution. I am truly humbled by the prospect of serving on the Supreme Court.”
With Election Day 38 days away, Senate Republicans hope to move quickly to confirm Barrett, 48, to a lifetime appointment on the high court. Only two of the 53 Republicans – Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine – oppose voting before the election.
Democrats and liberal interest groups critical of her positions on abortion, health care and other issues appear powerless to block it.
The White House has already set up meetings for Barrett on Capitol Hill, the traditional first step toward Senate confirmation.
If she wins confirmation, Barrett, a devout Catholic, would be the fifth woman to serve on the Supreme Court and Trump’s third nominee, joining Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. The past three presidents – Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – each appointed only two justices during their eight years in the White House.
Barrett is in many ways the ideological opposite of Ginsburg, the leader of the court’s liberal wing who died Sept. 18 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Trump and Senate Republican leaders want to confirm Barrett before the election – in part because of the contested nature of the election itself. Last week, Trump said he wanted nine justices on the court to decide any legal cases that arise from the voting.
Sen. Mike Braun, R-Indiana, said in an interview that Barrett will offer a “little more conservative backbone in the court,” adding with a laugh that her nomination to the high court has been
“one of the worst kept secrets.”
Braun said he has one of the first oneon-one interviews scheduled with the nominee on Wednesday, adding that throughout the week senators are scheduled to meet with Trump’s pick.
He said hearings are likely to start in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the panel tasked with vetting Barrett, the week of Oct. 12, with Republicans hoping for a full Senate vote before the end of October.
But first, the nomination of Barrett– who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, based in Chicago – will be a major campaign issue, coming just three days before the president’s first debate with Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Republicans and conservative allies applauded Barrett as a strict constructionist who will interpret the Constitution and not make law from the bench.
“Judge Barrett has impressed the brightest judicial and legal minds with her profound understanding of the law,” tweeted Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Confirming Barrett by Election Day will require an extraordinarily fast schedule against an historic deadline. It customarily takes about 10 weeks to move from a Supreme Court nomination to Senate confirmation. And no justice has been confirmed later than July of an election year.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, plan to hold hearings on Barrett in October, with a final Senate vote by early November, right ahead of the election.
Democrats have decried that plan as hypocritical, pointing to what happened in the 2016 election year. Then, the Republican Senate blocked President Barack Obama’s nominee to the high court after Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died in February, some nine months before Election Day.
If Trump and the Republicans push Barrett through, Democrats have vowed retaliation should they win control of the Senate in November. Their options range from ending filibuster rights – making it nearly impossible for a Republican minority to block legislation – to increasing the number of seats on the Supreme Court to restore ideological balance. They also could move to make Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico states, giving them opportunities to add Democrats to the Senate.
A former Scalia law clerk, Barrett checks most if not all conservative legal boxes. She is an originalist and a textualist, meaning she looks to the words of the Constitution and congressional statutes as written. At 48, she could serve on the court for four decades or more.
If confirmed by Election Day, she could be on the high court in time to hear several major cases this fall, including a third major challenge to the Affordable Care Act.
Barrett’s confirmation would give Republican appointees a 6-3 advantage on the nation’s highest court, perhaps locking in conservative dominance for decades on issues such as abortion, civil and voting rights, health care, police powers, free speech and government regulations.
In the Supreme Court term that ended in July, Republican appointees held a 5-4 advantage, though Trump and others questioned just how conservative the court was under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts.
Born in New Orleans and now a resident of Indiana, Barrett has been a Notre Dame law professor since 2002 and a federal appeals court judge since 2017. She and her husband, Jesse, have seven children, including two adopted from Haiti and one who has Down syndrome.
While she was the overwhelming favorite for the nomination, Trump and aides said he considered at least four other candidates: federal appeals court judges Barbara Lagoa of Florida, Allison Jones Rushing of North Carolina and Joan Larsen of Michigan, and Kate Comerford Todd, a deputy White House counsel.