WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced Tuesday that the Senate will vote to confirm President Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Monday, Oct. 26.
With a 53-47 majority, and just two Republican senators opposed, Trump’s nominee is on a glide path to confirmation that will seal a conservative hold on the court for years to come.
Without the votes to stop Barrett’s ascent, Democrats have few options left. They are searching for two more GOP senators to break ranks and halt confirmation, but that seems unlikely. Never before as a court nominee been voted on so close to a presidential election.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer decried what he called the “farcical” process to “jam” through Trump’s choice, even as the coronavirus outbreak sidelined GOP senators.
“The Republican majority is running the most hypocritical, most partisan and least legitimate process in the history of Supreme Court confirmations,” he said during speech as the Senate opened.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to meet Thursday to vote on recommending Barrett’s nomination to the full Senate.
By Friday, procedural votes are expected, continuing over the weekend as Republicans push through the steps for a final vote to confirm Barrett as soon as Monday.
The 48-year-old appellate court judge from Indiana delivered few specific answers during several days of public testimony as senators probed her previously outspoken views against abortion, the Affordable Care Act and other issues before the court. She declined to say whether she would recuse herself from cases involving the election between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
On Monday, the Supreme Court divided 4-4 Monday on a case about Pennsylvania mail-in voting ballots, an outcome that upholds a state Supreme Court ruling that allowed election officials to receive and count ballots until Nov. 6, even if they don’t have a clear postmark. Republicans opposed the extension, and the court's conservative justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas voted to require the state to stop accepting absentee ballots when the polls close on Nov. 3.
Trump has said he wants the judge seated in time to hear any potential disputes from the Nov. 3 election. He also has said he’s looking for a judge who would rule against the Obama-era health care law, which is headed to the court in a case justices are expected to hear Nov. 10.
If confirmed, Barrett would be Trump’s third justice on the court. She would fill the vacancy from the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the liberal icon, locking in a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.