The Senate Judiciary Committee vote to approve President Donald Trump's nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, with majority Republicans pushing past a Democratic boycott and the panel's rules to recommend her confirmation
Image: Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images​
WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to approve President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, with majority Republicans pushing past a Democratic boycott and the panel’s rules to recommend her confirmation.
The lopsided 12-0 tally set the stage for a consequential vote to confirm Barrett on Monday, a month to the day after the president announced her nomination to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It reflected the deep partisan polarization gripping the Senate as Republicans rush to cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the court and score a coveted achievement eight days before the election.
“This is why we all run,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the committee, exulted just before pushing through her nomination. “It’s moments like this that make everything you go through matter.”
The all-but-certain confirmation of Barrett, 48, an appeals court judge who has styled herself in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia, will most likely shape American society for decades to come. It has potentially sweeping implications for corporate power and the environment, abortion rights and gay rights, and a wide range of other policy issues, including health care access, gun rights and religious freedom.
Democrats, livid over the speedy process, spurned the vote altogether and forced Republicans to bypass their own long-standing committee rules requiring at least two members of the minority to be present to transact business.
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