Trump praises Amy Coney Barrett's 'towering intellect' as Clarence Thomas swears the 48-year-old onto the Supreme Court after the Senate confirmed her 52-48 to give conservatives a 6-3 majority
Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice on the White House South Lawn in front of Donald Trump by Clarence Thomas Monday night - an hour after a divided Senate voted for her confirmation.
Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court by a 52-48 vote - with Republican Susan Collins crossing the aisle to vote against her. Her confirmation immediately makes the court solidly conservative with a 6-3 majority.
At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue at 9pm, and in the face of a pandemic which reached a new record number of cases, Trump turned the South Lawn into the venue for a celebration of Coney Barrett's swearing-in.
Trump praised Coney Barrett's 'towering intellect,' and 'impeccable credentials,' as he spoke with the new justice on his right and Thomas on his left.
After Thomas swore her in Coney Barrett thanks the senators who voted for her and said: 'I pledge to you and to the American people that I will discharge my duties to the best of my ability.'
And in an acknowledgement of her highly-controversial confirmation process and the focus on her conservative Catholic beliefs and open espousal of pro-life beliefs while she was an academic.
'I will do my job my without any fear or favor and that I will do so independently of both the political branches and my personal preferences.'
In front of Coney Barrett and Trump on the South Lawn were Coney Barrett's husband Jesse, First Lady Melania Trump, and some of the Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee including Ted Ctruz, as well as White House aides.
The event was in the dark but inevitably echoed the superspreader unveiling of Coney Barrett in the Rose Garden exactly a month ago, which left former New Jersey governor Chris Christie in intensive care and was quickly followed by Trump and Melania getting COVID.
This time however - and for the first time at the White House - chairs were spread apart and many of the guests were wearing masks.
Not present were Mike Pence, the vice president who has continued to campaign for Trump despite five of his aides including his closest staff member testing positive for COVID, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has not been to the White House since August because his concern it is unsafe.
Moment of history: Amy Coney Barrett, her hand on a Bible held by her husband Jesse, is sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by Clarence Thomas, its longest-serving justice
Lit up in celebration: The White House was draped in giant flags for the swearing-in of Amy Coney Barrett (left) by Clarence Thomas (right)
First words as a Justice: Amy Coney Barrett takes the oath of office as Donald Trump savors the confirmation of the third justice of his presidency
Applauded: Donald Trump took Amy Coney Barrett to the Blue Room balcony after her swearing in to lead a round of applause
Families together - and unmasked: Donald and Melania Trump posed with Amy Coney Barrett and Jesse Barrett on the Blue Room balcony of the White House after she was sworn in as the ninth Supreme Court justice
Confirmed: Amy Coney Barrett smiles as Donald Trump praises her just before she is sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas to give the Supreme Court a 6-3 conservative majority
Delight: Donald Trump smiled as he celebrated gaining his third Supreme Court Justice as a crowd in the South Lawn applauded
South Lawn event: Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff (standing) was seen in a mask as the White House for the first time enforced social distancing and urged mask wearing for the swearing in of Amy Coney Barrett
Praise for Clarence Thomas: Donald Trump thanked the longest-serving - and most conservative - of the bench for his service before the 72-year-old administered the oath
Spouses together: Jesse Barrett, Amy Coney Barrett's husband, walked out of the White House with First Lady Melania Trump, neither of them in masks
On her way to history: Amy Coney Barrett walks on to a hastily-erected podium on the White House South Lawn followed by Donald Trump and Clarence Thomas
The key participants stood closely together, however, and Trump patted Thomas on the back after the swearing-in.
Trump's third nominee was not in the chamber to watch the roll call vote, which allows her to join the eight justices on Tuesday morning, and potentially to decide on cases about voting before the November 3 election. She took the oath on a day when Trump told a Pennsylvania rally crowd the only way he would lose was if there was 'absolute fraud.'
Senate president pro tempore Chuck Grassley declared her confirmation at 8.06pm to applause from fellow Republicans; outside the Supreme Court conservatives chanted Coney Barrett's name as soon as she was confirmed.
During his remarks Trump went out of his way to praise McConnell, who not only delivered on his vow to hold a vote before the election, but who designed the strategy to stall Barack Obama's nominee Merrick Garland for more than eight months in 2016, allowing Trump to name another justice, Neil Gorsuch. Along with Barrett and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump has now put three conservatives on the court.
'Our country owes a great debt of thanks to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. We appreciate it very much, Mitch, thank you,' Trump said. Trump also thanked Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, and singled out Republican senators who were in the audience – including embattled Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona.
Trump also called attention to Barrett's children, saying they have become 'very, very popular in this nation.'
'People have been watching them and loving them,' he said.
'The Barrett family has captured America’s heart,' Trump gushed.
Trump said she was the 'very first mother of school-aged children to become a Supreme Court Justice. (There have been fathers of school children on the court). But he noted that they were at home in Indiana – having flown with their parents to the announcement of her nomination that turned out to be a superspreader event.
Her confirmation transforms the court to a 6-3 conservative majority and comes after fierce opposition from Democrats, whose presidential nominee Joe Biden has resisted pressure to promise to pack the court if he wins - but who says he will order a commission on reforming the high court.
She is the first justice confirmed to the court without a single vote from the minority party since 1869.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had no formal role in the confirmation process, blasted the confirmation in a statement – setting the tone for how Democrats may respond if they keep the House and take over the Senate.
'Eight days from Election Day, after 60 million Americans have already cast their ballots, President Trump and the GOP Senate have committed an act of supreme desperation by jamming through a Supreme Court justice – all so that they can achieve their years-long campaign to destroy Americans’ health care,’ she said.
‘Now, Americans must continue to make their voices heard in the election. Congress will have to reverse the damage of a radical Republican court and defend pre-existing condition protections together with every other benefit and protection of the Affordable Care Act.’
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a soft-spoken but influential member of the Democratic minority, blasted the move. ‘Today is a bleak day for the United States Senate and the country. This day will long be remembered as the moment when Republicans tore up their own rules to ignore the will of the American people and pack the Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues who will compromise Americans’ rights and civil liberties,’ he said.
Trump spoke in sedate tones and read from a teleprompter, complimenting Barrett on her 'sterling character.'
He said she would rule 'based solely upon a faithful reading of the law and the Constitution as-written not legislate from the bench.'
'Your sacred rights can never ever be taken away,' Trump said.
His remarks made no mention of the bitter battle with Democrats to install her on the court just days before the election, although he did offer words praising the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
'The American people put their trust in you, and their faith in you as you take up the task of defending our laws,' he said.
'I stand here tonight truly honored and humbled,' Barrett said.
Like Trump, she thanked McConnell and Graham, and did not mention Democrats who opposed her.
But she did say it was a 'rigorous' confirmation process. 'It is the job of a senator to pursue her policy preferences,' Barrett said.
'It is the job of a judge to resist her policy preferences,' she continued. 'It would be a dereliction of duty for her to give into them.'
'I will do my job without any fear or favor and I will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences,' she pledged.
Before the final vote she was praised by Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell who said: 'By every account, the Supreme Court is getting not just an outstanding lawyer but a fantastic person.
'This is one of the brilliant, admired and well-qualified nominees in our lifetime,' he said.
She will be the only justice confirmed with a law degree from 'any school not named Harvard or Yale.'
The newest justice: Amy Coney Barrett, 48, was confirmed on Monday evening 52-48 by the Senate and will be able to join the other justices Tuesday morning
I did it: Mitch McConnell leaves the Senate with a thumbs up for succeeding in putting Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court
Three for three: Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has now shepherded Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett on to the high court - each one in controversial circumstances
Objection: Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer said that Republicans have tarnished themselves with the rush to put Barrett on the seat instead of letting voters decide the next president and allowing them to nominate a replacement of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Controversial: Supporters and opponents of Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation gathered outside the Supreme Court as the Senate voted to put her on the high court
McConnell added in an acknowledgment of the controversy over filling Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat days before the election and in defiance of her dying wish: 'I think we can all acknowledge that both sides in the Senate have sort of parallel oral histories about the last 30 or so years.
'Each side feel the other side struck first and struck worse.'
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, however, scorned the process which saw Coney Barrett confirmed on the eve of an election when McConnell had stopped even a hearing for Merrick Garland, Barack Obama's nominee, in 2016.
'You may win this vote. And Amy Coney Barrett may become the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. But you will never, ever, get your credibility back,' he said to Republicans on the Senate floor.
He said it would 'go down as one of the darkest days in the 231-year history of the United States Senate.'
Democrats had made the nomination before an election the center of their case against her, and highlighted her conservative rulings while a federal appeals court judge.
They had also warned that she may vote down Obamacare, move to overturn Roe v. Wade, which enshrines women's right to choose, and imperil restrictions on gun ownership, but could not stop McConnell's express train to fill the seat before the election.
The 48-year-old becomes the youngest member of the court, and almost certainly one of its most conservative.
But with Collins - whose re-election in Maine next week is already in jeopardy, according to polls - voting against Coney Barrett, she is the only one of Trump's nominees not to have at least one Democratic vote, and the only one with a Republican voting against her.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sought to assure reporters Monday that the White House ceremony would include safety precautions - which it did have, for the first time.
'We're doing tonight the best we can to encourage as much social distancing as possible,' he said.
Ready to celebrate: The White House South Lawn gets ready for a mass celebration of Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation
Three seats: Donald Trump got his third nominee confirmed with just eight days to go until the election - which Amy Coney Barrett may well become involved in deciding the outcome of
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, 72, will swear in Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in a White House ceremony as soon as she is confirmed in the Senate vote Monday evening
The White House is planning a Rose Garden celebration of her confirmation, similar to the 'superspreader' event announcing Barrett's nomination last month that sparked a White House coronavirus outbreak – infecting the president, first lady and their son, as well as several top aides and lawmakers
The plans had set off alarm bells as it sounds eerily similar to the Rose Garden event last month when Trump announced Barrett's nomination, inviting a whole crowd of aides, advisers, lawmakers and supporters to witness the occasion.
That event sparked a White House outbreak of COVID-19, which infected the president, first lady Melania and their son Barron, as well as about a dozen others within Trump's inner circle.
On Sunday, the Senate held a procedural vote to advance Barrett's nomination and kicked off 30 hours of debate, which will clear the way for a vote Monday evening.
'This is something to be really proud of and feel good about,' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said during a rare weekend session.
McConnell lauded that Democrats 'won't be able to do much about this for a long time to come', in contrast to legislative actions, which can be undone with new executive or legislative terms.
Barrett, a 48-year-old appellate judge for the 7th circuit, is a staunch Roman Catholic and life-long conservative. Her personal pro-life views have raised eyebrows among progressives who claim she will dismantle a woman's right to an abortion by working to overturn Roe v. Wade.
She is a member of People of Praise, a small and ultra-conservative charismatic group whose members speak in tongues.
Republicans had painted questions over her faith as an attack on Catholics at large and Democrats had steered clear of the group in their questions to her.
Her lifetime appointment to the highest U.S. court will also drastically change the makeup of the Supreme Court for a generation to come.
The mother of seven – five biological and two adopted from Haiti – has embraced her classification as the 'female Antonin Scalia' and says his jurisprudential practice of 'applying the law as written' will be how she serves.
During the three days of confirmation hearings earlier this month, including a day of opening statements and two days of questioning, Barrett reiterated her stance as a textualist and originalist, stressing this means she would apply the Constitution to cases as it's written and was intended by the drafters.
In the short term, Barrett could help decide election and voting-related issues as the vote on her confirmation comes just over a week before Election Day.
Donald Trump has made it clear he feels the results of the election could end up at the Supreme Court – and with a conservative majority of 6-3 with Barrett seated, it's more likely they would rule in favor of the president.
Also about a week after the election the Supreme Court will take up a case on the Affordable Care Act, which Democrats fear will be overturned if Barrett has anything to say about it.
"Towering intellect"?
ReplyDeleteIs that why she went to a relatively obscure university? Rhodes College?
And then to Notre Dame law school instead of Harvard or Yale or Princeton or Chicago?
She is smart, but Trump as usual speaks like a loony pitchman.
Justices with integrity follow the Constitution as written by our founding fathers.
ReplyDeleteThey do not follow the dems/repubs requests.