At the moment, the Senate is working on pushing forward to get Amy Coney Barrett onto the Supreme Court. While that ruling comes, there are things that have to be addressed, such as the prevalence of hypocrisy in the ongoing issue.
Off the bat, it’s important to talk about Merrick Garland. In March of 2016, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to succceed Antonin Scalia, who had passed away one month earlier. Hours after Scalia’s death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that any appointment by the sitting president is null and void on the basis that it was an election year. Familiar, right?
Well, that concept is clearly one that McConnell is not acquainted with.
Going off of Senator McConnell’s own words, any appointment made by President Trump would be considered null and void on the basis of the fact that it is an election year. However, that does not seem to be the case. In fact, McConnell met with President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee in hopes of speeding up her confirmation to the Supreme Court to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat. In case you need a reminder, we were less than two months away from the 2020 presidential election when RBG passed away.
So now that we know the “rules” don’t actually count, who is Trump’s Supreme Court pick? Who is Amy Coney Barrett? Barrett serves as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She is, obviously, a conservative whose views align with Trump’s and various other Republicans. What made her a top candidate for Trump is that Barrett has made clear that she would invalidate the Affordable Care Act. Barrett, who has strongly criticized the Affordable Care Act, even though she noted during hearings that she’s not particularly hostile to the law. The same law that provides 20 million with new healthcare coverage, and that the majority of Americans want to keep.
Another reason that Barrett caught the eye of Trump and other conservatives was her stance on Roe v. Wade, or rather lack thereof, since she has declined to give an answer as to whether or not she thinks the ruling was correctly decided. But from our understanding, she is against abortion itself, since she has confirmed to signing her name on advertisements that oppose abortion and her belief that precedents protecting reproductive rights are not settled law. Whether or not she will actually make strides to get Roe v. Wade overturned is unknown, but probably likely.
As Trump packs the supreme court with conservative judges, many people worry that gay marriage will be overruled, highlighted by two conservative judges calling the ruling into question. Given that Barrett’s addition to the court will shift it to a 6-3 conservative majority, the court might act on overturning that ruling as well.
While many Americans worry about their access to healthcare, reproductive rights and civil rights, Republicans in power are doing everything they can to set the courts to their advantage, even if it means they have to snub and step over people, while throwing decency to the wind.