It’s ‘all Hands on Deck’ This Week in Senate on Trump Court Nominee
Senate Republicans turn in earnest this week toward making good on President Donald Trump’s top objective in Congress ahead of the Nov. 3 election – placing his nominee Amy Coney Barrett on the U.S. Supreme Court and…
Senate Republicans turn in earnest this week toward making good on President Donald Trump’s top objective in Congress ahead of the Nov. 3 election – placing his nominee Amy Coney Barrett on the U.S. Supreme Court and moving it even further to the right over furious Democratic objections.
A four-day Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for the conservative appellate court judge is set to begin on Monday, a key step before a final full Senate vote by the end of October on her nomination for a lifetime job on the court.
Barrett’s confirmation to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would create a 6-3 conservative majority on the court that could lead to rulings rolling back abortion rights, expanding religious and gun rights and upholding Republican-backed voting restrictions, among other issues.
Trump’s ability to reshape the Supreme Court will be one of the enduring achievements of his presidency. He is the first president since Ronald Reagan in the 1980s to get to make three additions to the nine-member court, and he has done it in a single four-year term rather than Reagan’s eight years.
The Senate’s Republican leaders rejected Democratic pleas to delay the hearing after two Republican Judiciary Committee members and Trump himself tested positive for the coronavirus in the days following his Sept. 26 White House ceremony announcing Barrett, 48, as his nominee.
Even after testing positive, Trump took to Twitter to urge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “not to delay, but to instead focus full time on approving” Barrett, a favorite of religious conservatives who make up a key voting bloc for him.