Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Thursday morning to advance Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate, as Democrats boycotted the meeting.
The Republicans, who hold the majority, voted unanimously in favor of Barrett, a conservative judge. Instead of attending, the Democrats displayed posters at their desks of Americans they say have benefited from the Affordable Care Act now being challenged in court. Senators plan to convene a rare weekend session ahead of a final confirmation vote expected Monday.
“This is a groundbreaking, historic moment,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the committee chairman. “We did it.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said confirming Barrett, 48, will be “another signature accomplishment” for Republicans in their effort to fill the courts with “men and women who believe in the quaint notion that maybe the job of a judge is to actually follow the law.”
With Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, President Donald Trump’s pick for the court is almost certain to be confirmed.
At the same time, Democratic White House nominee Joe Biden is promising to appoint a commission to review the nation’s court system.
On Thursday, CBS News reported Biden made the comments in an upcoming Sunday broadcast of “60 Minutes.”
During their vice presidential debate, incumbent Mike Pence repeatedly pressed Democrat Kamala Harris to state her ticket’s position on “court packing,” a procedure which would add justices to the Supreme Court from its current nine. Harris did not answer Pence’s inquiries.
Biden has told reporters the nation will know his position on court packing before the election. In Sunday’s interview, Biden told CBS' Norah O’Donnell he would appoint a commission to study reforms.
Democrats have made a vigorous case against Barrett’s confirmation and argue the seat last held by the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg should not be filled so close to the election. Yet they have no recourse to stop it.
On Wednesday, the committee Democrats said they will “not grant this process any further legitimacy by participating in a committee markup of this nomination just 12 days before the culmination of an election that is already underway.”
Republicans are expected to easily confirm Barrett once her nomination reaches the Senate. They control the chamber by a 53-47 margin, and only one Republican, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, is a certain “no” vote. A second Republican, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, has said she opposes filling the seat before the election.
With no ability to stop Barrett’s ascent, Democrats are trying to turn voters against the nomination by making the case that she could strike down the Affordable Care Act and roll back abortion rights. In four days of hearings last week, they spent much of their questioning focused on those two issues.
Democrats have also argued that McConnell’s decision to move forward on Barrett’s nomination after Ginsburg died in September is “hypocrisy” after Republicans refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, several months before the 2016 election. Republicans say the difference is that the White House and Senate are now controlled by the same party.
One of Barrett’s first acts could be to attend a private telephone conference of the justices Oct. 30. Oral arguments at the court resume Nov. 2, and they are being done over the phone through December at least because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The court already has eight cases on the calendar for the first two weeks of November, including one on Nov. 4, the day after the presidential election, that’s a test of religious rights, a dispute over a Philadelphia Catholic agency that won’t place foster children with same-sex couples.
The following week, the justices will hear a challenge to the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. Democrats made that case central to their argument against Barrett, warning she could be a vote to strike down the law. Barrett said she couldn’t comment on the case but emphasized that she is not on a “mission to destroy the Affordable Care Act.”
Barrett would also be part of any court decisions related to the presidential election, unless she recused herself from them.
Barrett’s confirmation would cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the court for years to come. The shift from Ginsburg to the conservative appeals court judge from Indiana would be the most pronounced ideological change on the court in 30 years.
Barrett is the most open opponent of abortion nominated to the Supreme Court in decades — Republicans called her a “pro-life” judge during her confirmation hearings — and she could tilt the balance on that issue and many others.
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