{"id":50730,"date":"2020-10-27T17:20:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T23:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bennet-democrats-slam-supreme-court-nomination-process\/"},"modified":"2020-10-27T23:20:20","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T23:20:20","slug":"bennet-democrats-slam-supreme-court-nomination-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bennet-democrats-slam-supreme-court-nomination-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Bennet, Democrats slam Supreme Court nomination process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"President
President Donald Trump watches as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administers the Constitutional Oath to Amy Coney Barrett on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Monday after Barrett was confirmed to be a Supreme Court justice by the Senate earlier in the evening. Holding the Bible is Barrett\u2019s husband, Jesse Barrett.<\/span>Alex Brandon\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The U.S. Senate voted largely along party lines Monday night to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, securing what many view as a 6-3 conservative majority on the nation\u2019s highest court for several years to come.<\/p>\n

The vote came despite widespread resistance among Democratic politicians who opposed appointing a justice this close to the Nov. 3 election. Barrett was confirmed in a 52-48 vote; every Republican except Susan Collins of Maine supported the nominee. President Donald Trump nominated Barrett one month ago on Sept. 26.<\/p>\n

Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet spoke on the Senate floor Sunday night, decrying the circumstances surrounding Barrett\u2019s nomination and attacking Republican leadership, saying they were undermining the impartiality of the Supreme Court and ignoring the Senate\u2019s role to advise and consent in judicial nominations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Senate is now about to drag the Supreme Court down to its own decadent level by turning it into just another politicized body, distrusted \u2013 for good reason \u2013 by the people it\u2019s meant to serve,\u201d Bennet said in his speech. \u201cIn this confirmation proceeding \u2026 the majority renounced its duty to advise and consent by giving their consent before the president ever chose a nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet was one of many Democrats who denounced Republican efforts to nominate and confirm a Supreme Court justice after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg\u2019s death on Sept. 18. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led his party in calling the process \u201cillegitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Senate
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber Monday after final roll call vote to put Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court, at the Capitol in Washington.<\/span>J. Scott Applewhite\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Amy
Amy Coney Barrett listens as President Donald Trump speaks Monday before Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administers the Constitutional Oath to Barrett on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington.<\/span>Alex Brandon\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Democrats have also accused Republicans of hypocrisy, pointing to the proximity of the election and to Republicans\u2019 refusal to bring forward President Barack Obama\u2019s nominee to fill Antonin Scalia\u2019s seat after Scalia\u2019s death in February 2016. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said at the time that the vacancy should remain until the election was decided.<\/p>\n

However, Senate Republicans have said they are merely fulfilling the Senate\u2019s constitutional role in evaluating and confirming Barrett, and have pointed to several other cases of faster-than-normal confirmations for justices when the Senate and presidency are held by the same party.<\/p>\n

Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner voted for Barrett\u2019s confirmation to the Seventh Court of Appeals and supported her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. He celebrated Barrett\u2019s confirmation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident that Justice Amy Coney Barrett will protect the Constitution, uphold the rule of law and refuse to legislate from the bench,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cToday, I was proud to vote to confirm this exceptionally qualified jurist who respects the proper role of the judiciary, and I look forward to her service to our country on the U.S. Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Republicans hold a 53-seat majority and there were never more than two Republicans who said they did not support a vote, the nomination was able to move through committee and be brought to a floor vote with little ability for Democrats to impede it.<\/p>\n

Last week, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee boycotted a vote to advance Barrett\u2019s nomination out of committee onto the Senate floor. That vote succeeded 12-0 as none of the 10 Democrats in the committee were present.<\/p>\n

Instead, Democratic seats held photos of people they said could lose health care if the Affordable Care Act is struck down by the Supreme Court; Democrats have said that Barrett could be a deciding vote in lawsuits against the ACA. The court, with Barrett officially sworn in, is set to hear arguments on a case about the ACA in November.<\/p>\n

The boycott was one of a few moves that Democrats took to attempt to delay and undermine the confirmation process, but because of the Republican majority, those efforts have largely been symbolic.<\/p>\n

Now, focus turns to the future of the court; some Democrats have called for an expansion of the Supreme Court in response to a confirmation process that they decried as illegitimate. Other Democrats have refused to directly support expanding the court, but have expressed openness to reforming it.<\/p>\n

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has refused to say whether he will support expanding the number of justices, but said that if he is elected, he will appoint a bipartisan commission to evaluate court reforms.<\/p>\n

Republicans have sought to use that against Democrats by accusing them on the campaign trail of being in favor of court-packing, but Democrats have returned fire by saying Republicans\u2019 refusal to vote on Obama\u2019s court nominees in 2016 and rapid push to confirm Barrett are examples of court packing themselves.<\/p>\n

Justice Clarence Thomas administered the Constitutional Oath to Barrett before a crowd of about 200 on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday night. Barrett will be able to participate in the court after taking the judicial oath administered by Chief Justice John Roberts in a private ceremony at the court Tuesday.<\/p>\n

She will likely begin work on the Supreme Court this week.<\/p>\n

John Purcell is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Cory Gardner joined Republican colleagues in supporting nomination<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1137,28,29,24,25,22],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-u-s-sen-cory-gardner","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet","tag-us-supreme-court"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50730"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}