WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday is set to vote on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. The committee’s vote will determine if Barrett’s nomination is brought to the full Senate.
What: The Senate Judiciary Committee votes on Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court
When: Debate begins Thursday, Oct. 22 at 9 a.m. EDT; committee votes at 1 p.m. EDT
Where: Dirksen Senate Office Building
How to watch live: NewsNationNow.com and the NewsNation Now app
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will begin the process as soon as the Senate Judiciary Committee wraps up its work Thursday. With a 53-47 Republican majority, and just two GOP senators opposed, President Donald Trump’s nominee is on a 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 has a court nominee been voted on so close to a presidential election.
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.
An ideological heir to the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, Barrett would fill the seat vacated after the Sept. 18 death of Ginsburg, in what would be the sharpest ideological swing since Clarence Thomas replaced Justice Thurgood Marshall nearly three decades ago. She would be the sixth justice on the nine-member court to be appointed by a Republican president, and the third of Trump’s first term in office.
Barrett has been a judge since 2017, when Trump nominated her to the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But as a longtime University of Notre Dame law professor she had already established herself as a reliable conservative in the mold of Scalia, for whom she clerked in the late 1990s.