UPDATE: October 26, 2020, 7:40 p.m. EST—Despite opposition from Democrats, Senate Republicans confirmed Trump nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court with a 52-48 vote strictly along party lines, with the exception of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
Vox’s Ian Millhiser reports, “Senators who voted against Barrett represent 13,524,906 more people than the senators who voted for her.”
“This was an illegitimate nomination from the start,” Derrick Johnson, NAACP president, said in a statement.
“The Senate’s vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett is a travesty of justice,” Johnson continued. “Today’s action will be condemned by history as an extraordinarily grotesque overreach by a president and Senators to place power and party over the voices and needs of the American people. Both the Senate and the Court will be irreparably damaged by the loss of integrity and legitimacy rendered by today’s action.”
EARLIER:
On October 26th, at 7:30 pm, the Republican-controlled Senate is set to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. The vote to confirm Barrett’s nomination comes just 30 days after the seat was left vacant with the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The nomination was highly contested due to Barrett’s conservative stances on issues like abortion and LGBTQ rights. Senate Democrats attempted to protest the vote held by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week by abstaining their votes, in an attempt to eliminate a quorum. Despite their efforts, Senate Republicans moved forward with the unprecedented vote and helped Barrett reach the next steps of getting confirmed this week. Her inevitable confirmation will result in an overwhelmingly conservative Supreme Court, which has frightened not only Democrats but alumni from Barrett’s alma maters, Notre Dame Law and Rhodes College.
Coney’s confirmation comes just 8 days away from the national election, which is something Republicans have protested against in the past. With a lifetime appointment ahead, progressive political action groups hope that Barrett doesn’t seek to overturn the groundbreaking decision of Roe v. Wade authored by Justice Blackmun in 1973.