When members of the Senate vote to confirm 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court next month, we’ll be following precedent and doing our sworn duty under the Constitution.
There’s nothing unusual or unexpected about the Senate filling a Supreme Court vacancy. The Senate has every right to consider — or not consider — the president’s nominees, however it sees fit.
But that’s not the message you’ll hear if you listen to Democratic politicians and their allies in the media. If you ask them, they’ll tell you this isn’t normal and that the sky is falling — and that Republicans are to blame, as always.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES AMY CONEY BARRETT AS NOMINEE FOR SUPREME COURT SEAT
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., claimed last week that Republicans have “no right” to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. He even said that filling the seat would “spell the end” of the Senate.
If Chuck Schumer really wants to learn more about the Senate’s “right” to confirm judges, he can start by reading the Constitution — specifically Article II, Section 2, where it states that the Senate shall provide “advice and consent” on the president’s judicial nominees.
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As for whether confirming a Supreme Court justice would spell the “end of the Senate,” I’d say that’s up to the Democrats to decide — and the signs aren’t hopeful. A lot of Democrats are threatening to blow up the process, the Senate, and the Supreme Court itself if they don’t get their way, just as they’ve done in the past.
For example, Reza Aslan, a former CNN commentator, encouraged his fans to burn the country down if the Senate even tries to confirm a Supreme Court justice before the election. Not that liberals need much encouragement; anti-police rioters and Antifa radicals are already working hard to burn down cities across the country.
My Democratic colleagues in the Senate haven’t reacted much more responsibly. Democratic Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Ed Markey of Massachusetts have called for blowing up the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court with Democratic justices if the Senate confirms a Supreme Court nominee before the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration of the candidate elected in November.
Sen. Hirono, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, referred to this radical court-packing plan as “long-overdue court reform.”
And of course, the left-wing media already are doing their part to stoke the fire by spreading vile smears about Judge Barrett, just as they’ve done to Republican Supreme Court nominees like Brett Kavanaugh, Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas and Miguel Estrada.
Judge Barrett is a brilliant legal mind and strong conservative. She also happens to be a Christian mother of seven children. But Democrats and the media have insinuated with no evidence that she wants to turn America into a patriarchal theocracy along the lines of Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Newsweek even incorrectly reported that Atwood was inspired to write “The Handmaid’s Tale” by a religious community to which Judge Barrett reportedly belongs, called People of Praise. (Newsweek later corrected the story. The group played no part whatever in inspiring the book.)
It is laughable that the Democrats are accusing a woman who graduated summa cum laude from Notre Dame Law School and edited its law journal, received tenure at her alma mater as a professor, was confirmed as a federal appeals court judge, and is now a nominee for the Supreme Court of being a secret agent of patriarchy.
It’s even more ridiculous when you look at Judge Barrett’s record, which makes clear she is a constitutional conservative who believes her role is to interpret the law, not to impose her personal opinions on the rest of the country like the activist judges so common on the left.
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But the liberal media don’t see their role as reporting the truth. They just want to destroy the reputation of whoever the president dares to select. They seem to think if they repeat their smears long enough, the smears will become true.
Some have suggested, in the face of these threats and smears, that it would be better to postpone voting on a Supreme Court nominee until next year, following the presidential inauguration. They seem to think the best way to prevent further discord is to just surrender and give the Democrats what they want.
But if there’s anything we’ve learned the past few years, it’s that you can’t appease those in the radical base of the Democratic Party. If you give them a special counsel to investigate the president, they’ll impeach the president even though the special counsel comes back emptyhanded. If you nominate a judge with impeccable legal credentials, they’ll stoop to any depth to destroy his character and derail his nomination.
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The Democrats’ threats aren’t new. They were threatening to pack the court well before the current vacancy opened with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which means they’ll pack the court if they have the power and inclination whether we confirm a justice or not. Likewise, whether or not we confirm a justice has little bearing on whether the destruction in our nation’s cities continue.
Instead of wringing our hands about what the Democrats will or will not do, it’s time for Senate Republicans to roll up our sleeves. The left will stomp and storm all it wants. It’s our job to be the adults in the room by confirming Judge Barrett as the next justice to the Supreme Court.
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