Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels On Monday, Oct. 26, the Senate voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett as the 115 justice appointed to the Supreme Court, and the fifth woman on the Court. The vote was 52 to 48, with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine being the only Republican not to vote in favor of confirming Barrett.
Barrett is the only Justice who did not graduate from Harvard or Yale Law school, as she is a graduate of Notre Dame Law.
Barrett’s nomination generated a lot of contention from the Democratic party with many of its members arguing that the nomination should wait until after the election. These arguments were similar to the same arguments made by Republicans when former President Barack Obama tried to appoint a justice as his term was coming to an end.
The confirmation of Barrett marks a shift in the makeup of the Supreme Court and tilts it to the right, with six conservative justices to three liberal justices.
Many Democrats reacted negatively to the news, and both Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted their beliefs that Biden should pack the Supreme Court to fix what they viewed as a problem.
“Remember that Republicans have lost 6 of the last 7 popular votes, but have appointed 6 of the last 9 justices. By expanding the court, we fix this broken system and have the court better represent the values of the American people,” said Rep. Omar in a tweet.
The issue of packing the court has come up several times this month, and thus far, presidential candidate Biden has remained non-committal on the issue.
In an interview on PBS “60 Minutes,” Biden did say “there’s a number of other things that our constitutional scholars have debated and I’ve looked to see what recommendations that commission might make.”
According to the New York Times, Barrett’s confirmation was the first time in 151 years that a Supreme Court nominee wasn’t confirmed by any members of the minority party.
Harrison Neville is the previous Editor in chief for The Alabamian. He is a fourth-year English major whose hobbies include reading, hiking, cooking and writing. He has previously worked for The Alabamian as a managing editor, distribution manager, copy editor and SGA columnist.
