The Senate officially confirmed Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court on Monday, October 26. Barrett is to take the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her confirmation makes her the Supreme Court’s youngest justice, at age 48, and the first justice to be a mother of school-aged children. Barrett is conservative, solidifying a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court, and given her age, is likely to affect the skew for decades to come.
One of the first cases Barrett will consider as a Supreme Court Justice is the examination of whether the Affordable Cares Act should be overturned. Part of this examination is whether a change to the individual mandate, the tax Americans had to pay for not getting health insurance, would affect the validity of the entire law. Other upcoming cases she will be apart of will include abortion rights (undo Roe v. Wade), expansion of the interpretation of the Second Amendment, and the upcoming election outcome, if a case arises, pending she does not rescue herself from any of these cases.
The vote was a narrow 52-48 vote, with all but one Republican senator, Susan Collins (R-ME), voting in favor of her confirmation. No Democrats voted in favor of Barrett’s appointment. Collins stated her reasoning for opposing Barrett’s appointment was due to disagreement with the process used for her nomination (as did Democrats, among other reasons). In 2016, Senate Republicans withheld consideration of a supreme court nominee until after the general election, insisting that the American people, through their votes, should have a voice in the decision-making process. For Barrett, however, the Republicans, with less than two months to go until the election, expedited Barrett’s confirmation.
What impact do you think her appointment will have on the economy, perhaps specifically related to the ACA or other upcoming cases? What impact do you think Barrett’s appointment will have on the upcoming election?
https://www.vox.com/2020/10/26/21529619/amy-coney-barrett-confirmed-supreme-court
I think Barretts extreme conservatism will most likely skew a lot of decisions made in the Supreme Court. With a lot of her views being controversial, it will be interesting to see her impact on policies in the future especially since she will have say for a long time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Libby that her extreme conservatism will likely skew many decisions. If she were more moderate it would not be as big of a concern. I also think that her relatively young age will allow for these concerns to persist for a long time. In light of this appointment, Biden has voiced many opinions about the supreme court and if he is elected I am curious to see what he is able to do. I think that many people at this point are rooted in who they plan to vote for so I do not see this appointment having that large of an impact.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you both that here extreme conservatism will be the factor that effect the supreme courts decision the most and including her young age making her able to be on the court for a long time
ReplyDeleteI think it will skew the courts but maybe not as bad as people think. The "6-3" claim is somewhat biased. Kavanaugh has established himself as a man in the middle, as he has sided with liberals on a few accounts.
ReplyDeleteThe Supreme Court will, without a doubt, be more conservative than it has really ever been. However, we need to watch closely on the upcoming cases like Affordable Care Act and Roe v Wade, before we will truly see how skewed it is.