Amy Coney Barrett meets with GOP senators in preparation for Supreme Court confirmation battle
Judge Amy Coney Barrett met privately with several Republican senators Tuesday as they kick-started the process of trying to confirm her controversial nomination to the Supreme Court before the November election.
Barrett, nominated by President Donald Trump last week to fill the seat left vacant by the Sept. 18 death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, did not take any questions as she arrived on Capitol Hill with Vice President Mike Pence for the meetings.
Instead, GOP senators itching to rubber-stamp Barrett’s nomination did the talking for her.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz claimed it’s crucial to confirm Barrett as quickly as possible so that the Supreme Court has nine justices in the event that it must consider challenges to the results of the Nov. 3 election — a complete flip-flop from his reasoning for helping block President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016.
“The entire reason the Senate should act and should act promptly to confirm a ninth justice is so the Supreme Court can resolve any cases that arise in the wake of the election. This election is a closely contested election,” Cruz told reporters before his meeting with Barrett, adding that she should “of course not” recuse herself from any cases involving the outcome of the election if she’s confirmed.
Cruz’s anticipation of court challenges echoes Trump’s baseless claim that the election will be “rigged” for Democrats because millions of voters are expected to cast ballots by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic. There’s no evidence for that assertion, and mail-in voting has actually proven overwhelmingly secure.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., careful not to say whether the final vote on Barrett’s nomination will ultimately happen before the election, told reporters he’s just happy that the ball’s in motion.
“We’re glad to have her here and get the process started,” McConnell said before retreating behind-closed-doors for meetings.
Barrett’s expected to sit down with most of the Senate’s 53 Republicans over the course of this week, the first step in the Supreme Court nomination process.
Republicans, abandoning their previously stubborn stance that Supreme Court picks should not be considered during an election year, plan to start confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee next week, with hopes of holding a final floor vote on Barrett’s nomination just days before the Nov. 3 election.
The 48-year-old appeals court judge holds deeply conservative views on abortion and other hot-button issues. If she’s confirmed, the court’s right-wing justices will dominate the bench 6-3, a political balance that liberals fear will last for decades and spell the end for Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion on a federal level.
Democrats, who are refusing to meet with Barrett because they consider her nomination illegitimate, will try to delay the confirmation vote past the election, at which point the makeup of the Senate could change, with several GOP senators facing difficult reelection races this year.
The Democrats say McConnell and his Republican majority are shamelessly hypocritical, considering they refused to even give Garland a hearing on the grounds that it was too close to the 2016 election when Obama nominated him in March of that year.
In light of Cruz’s comments about the election, some Democrats also saw a more nefarious underpinning to the Republican push for fast-tracking Trump’s pick.
“McConnell Republicans are admitting they’re rushing to pack another rightwing extremist onto the Supreme Court so the court can just name the election winner,” tweeted Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J.
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