It’s Official. The Senate Just Confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to Replace Ruth Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.

Her confirmation locks in a 6–3 conservative majority that could hold for decades to come.

Jim Loscalzo/Pool/CNP/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

The Senate just voted to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court, marking President Trump’s third addition to the court and locking in a 6–3 conservative majority that could derail Democratic legislation for decades to come.

The 52–48 vote followed a Democratic effort to delay Barrett’s confirmation through a filibuster. While Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine voted with Democrats to maintain the filibuster Sunday, Collins was ultimately the only Republican to vote against confirming Barrett.

Senate Republicans’ push to rush Barrett’s confirmation eight days before the presidential election has garnered controversy, given their refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court appointee Merrick Garland for 11 months in 2016 on the grounds that it was an election year. Polls show that most Americans would prefer the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be filled after the election. “My most fervent wish,” Ginsburg told her granddaughter days before her death, “is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

As my colleague Stephanie Mencimer reported, Barrett is the least-experienced Supreme Court nominee in 30 years, having never worked as a judge until President Trump nominated her to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017. Stephanie writes:

A graduate of Notre Dame law school, Barrett has almost no experience practicing law whatsoever—a hole in her resume so glaring that during her 7th Circuit confirmation hearing in 2017, Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were dismayed that she couldn’t recall more than three cases she’d worked on during her brief two years in private practice. Nominees are asked to provide details on 10.

Barrett has never tried a case to verdict or argued an appeal in any court, nor has she ever performed any notable pro bono work, even during law school…In response to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s questions about her pro bono work, Barrett said she probably helped with such cases during her two years in private practice, but she couldn’t recall any details.

Barett’s inexperience isn’t just judicial—her privileged perspectives and upbringing have also kept her from understanding the hardships that afflict most people, Stephanie reports. “During the hearings, she seemed at times to strain to acknowledge that there are real human beings experiencing the consequences of her decisions,” she writes. “Her testimony inadvertently reinforced the fact that she’s spent her entire adult life in a conservative bubble, not a place known for its forgiving human spirit.”

This post was brought to you by the Mother Jones Daily newsletter, which hits inboxes every weekday and is written by Ben Dreyfuss and Abigail Weinberg, and regularly features guest contributions by our much smarter colleagues. Sign up for it here.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate