Photo Credit: Rachel Malehorn smugmug.com via/AP
Senate Republicans are scheduled to confirm Supreme Court Nominee Justice Amy Coney Barrett this evening, days before the November 3rd Presidential election. Directly after the confirmation, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is expected to swear Justice Barrett at a ceremony to be held at the White House Rose Garden.
A mid-September Survey Monkey showed that Americans preferred that the 2020 presidential election winner fill the vacant Supreme Court seat. Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, moments before the final confirmation vote, on the Senate floor stated, “Tonight the Republican majority will make a mockery of its own stated principle that the American people deserve a voice in the selection of Supreme Court justices, completing the partisan theft of two seats on the Supreme Court, using completely contradictory rationales.”
In January 2016, after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antoin Scalia, President Obama nominated Justice Merrick Garland. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to acknowledge Garland’s nomination, claiming the winner of the 2016 presidential election should have the opportunity to nominate the next justice.
Senator Schumer addressed on the Senate floor, that “After refusing a Democratic nominee to the Supreme Court because an election was eight months away, they will confirm a Republican nominee before an election that is eight days away.”
