Are Democrats using Trump’s health scare to Block SCOTUS Appointment?

On October 2, 2020, United States President Donald J. Trump was reported to have tested positive for COVID-19; and as expected, the Democratic Party did not waste time making  Trump’s shocking news political.

Shortly after mainstream media sources reported Trump’s COVID test results, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated in a press conference that Trump’s COVID result should be another reason to delay Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for her confirmation to the United States Supreme Court. Schumer is claiming that it would be unsafe to hold any hearings or vote.

As the media cycle may have informed, Judge Barrett was nominated to succeed the late SCOTUS Justice Ginsburg after Ginsburg’s death on September 18. Since then, politicians from both sides of the aisle knew Justice Ginsburg’s death would be another political battle in Washington because they knew the inevitability of a third Trump pick for the supreme court.

For the Republican party, the stakes were that if Trump were to appoint another supreme court Justice, then the court would be filled with originalists who interpreted laws as written and not legislate from the bench, which Republican have sought for decades.

Conversely, the Democrats believe that if Trump were to have a third supreme court pick, then landmark cases such as Roe v. Wade would be overturned, and other Democrat policy agendas that would not pass through legislative means would be upheld by SCOTUS judicial activists.

For both sides, SCOTUS has always been a battleground for policy agendas because both sides know that the supreme court can be the final arbiter between both parties’ clashing policy aspirations.

The situation was recently further complicated for the Republicans as Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson tested positive for COVID-19 and will not be able to be present for a vote on Barrett’s appointment to the supreme court which could delay the proceedings.

So what does the SCOTUS fights mean to common Americans?

If the Republicans win, the supreme court may be filled with originalist justices who will interpret laws as written and will not strive to legislate from the bench as much as possible.

Conversely, the Democrats would be free to have liberal justices who will seek to make policy decisions the American people did not want or need, and would have disastrous consequences in terms of setting precedent for the American people. One example is Heller v. District of Columbia where the case set precedent to reinforce the wordings in the American Constitution’s 2nd Amendment, which Democrats have obstinately opposed for decades.

Simply, the addition of another conservative on the supreme court would be a victory for Americans because SCOTUS will have minimal legislative roles as the Democrats had hoped.

From a conservative’s perspective, Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the supreme court is not purely ideological but also practical because if Trump had nominated another man to SCOTUS, the nominee would have received the same treatment as Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation. Additionally it will show the left’s hypocrisy where they would only advocate for a woman if she is a liberal.

Although Judge Barrett’s nomination is close to the 2020 US Presidential Election, the difference between 2016 when the Republicans blocked Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination and now is that during Judge Garland’s nomination, former President Obama was already at the end of his second term while Trump is just finishing up his first. Therefore, the difference between Judge Barrett’s and Garland’s could not be any more clear from both Republican and Democrat perspectives.

Lastly, as Texas Senator Ted Cruz pointed out during SCOTUS Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Trump released a list of Judges he would appoint to SCOTUS during 2016; and hence, all of Trump’s picks for SCOTUS have been given “super legitimacy” by way of Trump’s electoral victory in 2016. Simply, there were no surprises for Pres. Trump’s pick for SCOTUS.