Unable to stop Supreme Court Confirmation, Senate Democrats boycott ACB Vote

Yesterday, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee held a vote to finalize Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court. And as expected, Senate Democrats made another political play to delay ACB’s confirmation by boycotting the hearing altogether.

Outside the Senate Judicial Committee chambers, however, Senate Democrats protested and made the following statements:

First was Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made a speech that Republicans have rushed ACB’s confirmation claiming the process was “unprecedented two weeks before a presidential election” and “illegitimate because Democrats did not wish to participate on the vote to move ACB’s confirmation to the Senate floor.”

Then Sen. Dianne Fienstein (D-CA) restated the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s statement that SCOTUS justices are supposed to be decided by the next president, implying Joe Biden should be given a chance to fill RBG’s statement if he wins the upcoming election.

After, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) questioned ACB’s judicial philosophy stating “she could not even answer the simplest questions regarding peaceful transition of power in the event President Trump lost the upcoming election”; and “ACB would green light any political move Trump would do without opposition.”

And finally, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) made a statement about ACB’s confirmation delaying COVID relief to Americans, which Republicans have been vigorously negotiating with Democrats for months. Furthermore, Sen. Durbin also brought up the issue of Judge Merick Garland when Republicans did not confirm him to SCOTUS.

Regardless, Democrats have been given a chance to participate in ACB’s confirmation hearings and make a case for ACB’s nomination to be cancelled. Unfortunately, Democrats could not find faults with any of ACB’s statements during the confirmation hearings, and was instead outmaneuvered by ACB.

By contrast, Senate Republicans present during the judicial committee vote stated the following:

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) made a statement about how Republicans have played by the rules and every time there was a Rupublican nominee to SCOTUS, Democrats would always find a way to make a political play to either delay or completely disqualify a Republican judicial nominee.

The first case Sen. Lee brought how Democrats managed to quash the late Judge Robert Bork’s nomination to SCOTUS through vicious personal and political attacks by stating Judge Bork would have rolled back regulations on civil rights legislations.

Then, the case where Democrats “publicly lynched” SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas during his nomination with allegations of sexual assault against Anita Hill.

Ultimately, Sen. Lee’s statements highlighted how Democrats would do anything and everything to change US Senate conventions and rules to suit their own agenda. The current excuse is that it is too close to an election but that reason could

Following Sen. Lee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) defended ACB’s judicial philosophy stating Democrat questions during the confirmation hearings were to trick ACB in making prejudgements when reviewing judicial precedent, such as SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts’ decision on the Affordable Care Act. And how Democrats have been trying to put judicial activists in SCOTUS for their political agenda.

Finally, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) made the final statement that the upcoming presidential election is the most important in recent history because it will decide the fate of SCOTUS in terms of “Court Packing” – a question neither Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Biden and Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris have yet to answer.

Comparing both Republican and Democrat statements, a few things are clear: ACB will be confirmed to SCOTUS because of Senate Republican majority; but the fate of SCOTUS will be on the line in the upcoming election.