The Senate by a divided vote of 52-48 appoints President Trump's nominee as the 115th justice to the Supreme Court on Monday. This upraises the fifth woman to the court in its 231-year history. Barrett is Trump's third nominee to the Supreme Court.
Senate Confirms Amy Coney Barrett as Supreme Court Justice
Republicans have overpowered Democrats to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee days prior to the presidential election and secure a possibly conservative court majority in the future.
Colorado's two senators were divided along party lines on Monday regarding Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation. Yuma Republican Senator Cory Gardner voted in favor of Barrett who would replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died in September. Denver Democrat Senator Michael Bennet voted against Barrett's nomination.
According to Gardner, "If you could take the politics out of this place, she would probably have a unanimous vote. Unfortunately, the politicization of this nomination is going to prevent that." Meanwhile, Bennett stated, "Judge Barrett's confirmation will cement a 6-3 majority on the court that will allow the powerful to do what they want, while standing against the American people's efforts to protect one another, to support one another, and to invest in each other through our democracy," reported Greely Tribune.
Although the Senate Republicans barred President Barack Obama from filling a 2016 Supreme Court seat on the auspices that such activity should not be initiated in an election year, they still gave Barrett the thumbs-up that landed mere eight days prior to the November 3 election.
After the total votes were announced, GOP senators erupted in applause.
The conservative jurist's designation provides the court a 6-3 majority of Republican-appointed justices with the right timing to rule on election-related cases that could be of importance to the outcome of the race, reported Financial Times.
After the vote, Barrett took one of two necessary oaths at the White House's outdoor event with Justice Clarence Thomas.
Trump took the opportunity posed by the broadcasted appointment to talk about the bright inheritance of the United States. He addressed the American public eight days prior to the presidential election that Americans should not lose assurance in their heritage, history, or in their heroes.
The prime-time event in the White House lawn mirrored an event in September when Barrett's nomination was declared before a COVID-19 outbreak among top Republicans including Trump transpired.
The event came after over an hour after the Republican-handled Senate confirmed her to the lifetime appointment, reported Reuters.
All but one Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, voted for Judge Barrett, a 48-year-old appeals court judge and apprentice of former Justice Antonin Scalia.
This is a sign of how strained Washington's decades-old war over judicial nominations has become as it was the first time in 151 years that a justice was confirmed without a single vote from the minority party.
Trump's decision to fill the opening of the position of the late liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg possibly opens a new advent of the Affordable Care Act, abortion rulings, and his own election.
