The U.S. Senate confirmed conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett as the newest Supreme Court Justice Monday, giving President Donald Trump a historic victory just eight days before the election.
Trump hailed the confirmation of his candidate Barrett before the Supreme Court as “a momentous day for America,” in a ceremony that took place just eight days before the presidential election.
“This is a momentous day for the United States, for the Constitution of the United States, and for a fair and impartial rule of law,” the president said, along with Barrett, before smiling at legislators and others who had gathered at the South Lawn of the White House.
“I am here tonight, truly honored and humbled,” said Barrett, a 48-year-old religious conservative, shortly after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administered the constitutional oath.
The deeply divided chamber voted 52-48, largely along party lines in the Republican-controlled Senate, making Barrett the third Trump candidate to reach the superior court and cementing a conservative majority. from six to three.
Republican lawmakers erupted in applause when the count was read, and the White House is also expected to celebrate confirmation in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election, in which more than 60 million Americans have already voted.
Immediately after the vote, the White House announced that Trump would attend an “oath ceremony” for Barrett on the south lawn of the mansion, where he will take an oath to uphold the US Constitution.
Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the judicial oath on Tuesday at the Supreme Court, formally inaugurating his term in court.
Barrett, a 48-year-old religious conservative, replaces the late Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal icon and women’s rights advocate who died Sept. 18 at age 87.
The process to nominate and confirm Barrett was one of the most controversial in memory, as he came so close to the presidential election.
Democrats have argued that Republicans hypocritically endorsed Barrett’s nomination just 38 days before the election, despite refusing to hold hearings for Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016 after he nominated Merrick Garland to fill a vacant seat eight months. before the vote that year.
“They can win this vote … But they will never regain their credibility,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, addressing his Republican colleagues, in a withering speech.
“In the process, they will accelerate the precipitous decline of faith in our institutions, our politics, the Senate and the Supreme Court,” he added. “You will give an already divided nation a new outrage.”
While Democrats warn that Barrett could vote to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and perhaps overturn the landmark 1973 decision protecting abortion rights, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that it had demonstrated a “total and complete commitment to impartiality”.
“You can’t win all of them,” he told Democrats, “and elections have consequences.”
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