Steaming right ahead on judge
GOP move speeds confirmation vote
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee used the power of their majority Thursday to schedule a vote for next week to advance Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination, clearing a key procedural hurdle in the face of withering criticism from Democrats.
The Oct. 22 vote was penciled in after the committee’s 12 Republicans gave it a thumbs up while its 10 Democrats opposed.
The Democrats tried to block the scheduling business by noting that there wasn’t a sufficient number of members in the chamber to set the Oct. 22 vote.
But Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) steamrolled them and proceeded to set the vote anyway.
“This is a sham,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) protested.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) followed up by introducing a motion to delay Barrett’s confirmation process indefinitely.
But Blumenthal’s motion was predictably defeated in the same 12-10 party-line tally.
If it falls along the same partisan lines, the Oct. 22 vote will advance Barrett’s controversial nomination for final consideration on the Senate floor as Republicans barrel ahead with their unprecedented rush to confirm her by Election Day.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has signaled the floor vote will happen on Oct. 26, completely flip-flopping on his previously stubborn stance that Supreme Court vacancies should not be filled in an election year.
Barrett, who was not present in the hearing room Thursday after two marathon rounds of questioning, would solidify a 6-3 right-wing majority on the top court if confirmed to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That would mark the most pronounced ideological shift on the top bench in decades, and Democrats fear it would spell the end for the Affordable Care Act and put modern abortion rights, voting rights and other critical issues in the crosshairs as well.
Facing questions from senators on Tuesday and Wednesday,
Barrett refused to divulge her legal opinions on a slew of issues, claiming it would violate her judicial code of conduct to comment on hypotheticals.
Appearing at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Thursday afternoon, Trump praised Barrett for her reticence.
“She’s been flawless. She hasn’t made a mistake,” Trump said to roars from supporters. “She’s toying with those Democrat, evil people. They’re evil.”
Back in the hearing room, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the judiciary committee’s top Democrat, noted that her Republican colleagues conducted Thursday’s scheduling business even though there was still testimony to be heard — something she said she’d never seen in her 25 years on the committee.
“This is being done without any precedent,” she said.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), meanwhile, voiced outrage over the backdrop against which Republicans are pressing ahead.
“You don’t convene a Supreme Court confirmation hearing, in the middle of a pandemic, when the Senate’s on recess, when voting has already started in the presidential election in a majority of states,” Coons said, as the U.S. coronavirus death toll surged above 217,000.
After Republicans jammed through the scheduling notice, the hearing resumed with outside constitutional experts and witnesses offering testimony against or in favor of Barrett’s nomination.
Among the witnesses was Michigan primary care doctor Farhan Batti, who warned of the toll on his patients if Barrett is confirmed and the Supreme Court rescinds Obamacare.
Crystal Good, a writer from West Virginia, told a deeply personal story of seeking an abortion as a sexually-abused teenager and expressed fear over the potential that Barrett could help overturn or water down Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion on a federal level.
“Hear us when we ask you not to approve this nomination,” Good pleaded with the senators.
Republicans, who refused to even consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick in 2016 because of proximity to that year’s election, offered little sympathy.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said he understands Democrats’ “disappointment” over the Barrett nomination.
“But I think their loss is the American people’s gain,” he added.