{"id":81296,"date":"2020-10-04T01:07:25","date_gmt":"2020-10-03T22:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/amy-coney-barretts-scotus-nomination-at-risk-amid-dc-covid-19-outbreak\/"},"modified":"2020-10-04T01:07:25","modified_gmt":"2020-10-03T22:07:25","slug":"amy-coney-barretts-scotus-nomination-at-risk-amid-dc-covid-19-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/amy-coney-barretts-scotus-nomination-at-risk-amid-dc-covid-19-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"#Amy Coney Barrett’s SCOTUS nomination at risk amid DC COVID-19 outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Amy Coney Barrett’s SCOTUS nomination at risk amid DC COVID-19 outbreak<\/strong>”
\n<\/p>\n

\n The Senate Republicans\u2019 tight timeline to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court got even narrower Saturday, as COVID-19 spread to their chamber.<\/p>\n

With three GOP senators in isolation for at least 10 days after testing positive for coronavirus, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell\u2019s 53-member caucus may lack the votes needed to seat Barrett with a pre-Election Day floor vote if the illness continues to spread<\/a> \u2014 or if the ill senators do not recover in time.<\/p>\n

And while Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Friday that hearings on Barrett\u2019s nomination, set to begin Oct. 12, will go forward by video, the committee\u2019s Oct. 15 debate could be stalled by the sidelined senators\u2019 absence.<\/p>\n

Two of the committee\u2019s 12 GOP members \u2014 Utah\u2019s Mike Lee and North Carolina\u2019s Thom Tillis \u2014 tested positive for coronavirus on Friday. Wisconsin\u2019s Ron Johnson, not a member of the panel, tested positive Saturday.<\/p>\n

Lee intends to return to work next Monday, just in time for the hearing\u2019s first day, Graham tweeted Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Majority Leader and Chairman Graham have said full steam ahead,\u201d Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred percent, this impacts nothing,\u201d insisted a GOP Judiciary Committee insider. \u201cThis is going to happ<\/a>en before the election. The schedule has not changed at all, and it will not change based on what we know now.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Democrats have a chance to stymie the process Oct. 15, when the committee is set to debate Barrett\u2019s qualifications and hold a markup session, or on Oct. 22, when Graham intends to put her nomination to a vote.<\/p>\n

If Lee and Tillis are still on sick leave at that point \u2014 or if any other Republicans come down with COVID-19 \u2014 a boycott by the committee\u2019s 10 Democratic members would stall business indefinitely, by preventing the 11-member quorum needed to conduct committee business.<\/p>\n

Senate Democrats have vowed to throw such parliamentary monkey wrenches into the confirmation process \u2014 with their counterparts in the House cheering them on.<\/p>\n

\u201cDems can call roll and potentially delay proceedings \u2014 and we should,\u201d Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez exhorted them on Twitter<\/a> Saturday. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t give McConnell an inch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans say such tactics are doomed to failure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could hold [the committee meeting] on the Senate floor, with Lee sitting in a gallery, if needed,\u201d a conservative judicial activist said.<\/p>\n

McConnell will move to delay Senate business<\/a> until Oct. 19, he said Saturday, in an attempt to curtail any further spread of the novel coronavirus through Congress\u2019s upper chamber.<\/p>\n

But that effort, too, could be stalled by Senate Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Senate cannot proceed with business as usual,\u201d Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued in a Saturday tweet. \u201cIf it\u2019s too dangerous to have the Senate in session, it\u2019s too dangerous for committee hearings to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Judiciary Committee Democrats\u2019 parliamentary moves keep Barrett from getting a vote, they don\u2019t have the power to bottle up her nomination there.<\/p>\n

Under Senate rules, McConnell has the right to advance her nomination to the Senate floor without the committee\u2019s approval and force a vote during the last week of October.<\/p>\n

But at that point, the health of all of his GOP members will come into play.<\/p>\n

With the Senate split 53-47 in the Republicans\u2019 favor, McConnell has little room to maneuver \u2014 and two Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have already signaled that they will vote \u201cnay\u201d if Barrett\u2019s nomination comes up before Election Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a reckless, hurried process that is beyond a farce,\u201d said Democratic strategist Eric Koch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no procedure in place for dealing with a virus that is taking control of the Senate,\u201d a Capitol Hill Dem told The Post. \u201cBut there might be one thing more important to President Trump\u2019s supporters than Amy Coney Barrett \u2014 and that is keeping the president and the Republican members of the Senate alive.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n