There have been no surprises and the United States Senate has confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett as a new member of the Supreme Court, thus ensuring a conservative majority -6-3-, which the Democratic Party fears could mean the elimination of the The Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as ‘Obamacare’, as well as the pushback on other social rights issues.
The vote held this Monday in the Senate, which resulted in 52 votes in favor and 48 against, has confirmed Barrett’s entry into the Supreme Court less than 40 days after the death of progressive Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
This haste in the deadlines has been the main criticism launched from the Democratic Party, since they consider that the White House has not played fair as its candidacy was gestated shortly before the elections on November 3.
Last month, the Democratic candidate Joe Biden described Barrett’s controversial nomination as an “abuse of power”, as it was expected to take place after the presidential elections, since he believes that the Trump Administration is asking the Supreme Court to end ‘Obamacare’ in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
The Democratic Party has pointed out in recent weeks the “hypocrisy” shown by Republicans during this case, because in the last year of Barack Obama’s presidency, in 2016, the Senate, with a Republican majority, blocked the appointment of Merrick Garland to to fill the vacancy that arose in the Supreme Court after the death of Antonin Scalia because it was an election year.
Barrett, who worked under Scalia, has insisted in recent weeks in sessions held in the Senate on her independence and has tried to disassociate herself from the figure of her ultra-conservative mentor.
“Everything that Judge Scalia has said is not necessarily something that he would agree or would do,” Barrett said during the third session held on October 14, after declaring the day before as “not hostile” to the ‘Obamacare’.
Barrett is the third appointment of the president, Donald Trump, to the Supreme Court. Since Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), it was precisely he who nominated Judge Scalia in 1986, no tenant of the White House had proposed so many nominees for the American High Court.
