segunda-feira, 26 de outubro de 2020

Pelosi On Confirmation Of Amy Coney Barrett: ‘Very Sad Day For Our Country’ // Amy Coney Barrett Sworn In as Supreme Court Justice, as Democrats Vow Reprisals


2020 Election Live Updates: Amy Coney Barrett Sworn In as Supreme Court Justice, as Democrats Vow Reprisals

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/27/us/trump-biden-election?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

 


Senate Republicans confirmed Judge Barrett 52 to 48, delivering President Trump a victory days before the election. She could begin work as soon as Tuesday.

 

Here’s what you need to know:

Barrett is swiftly sworn in after her Supreme Court confirmation, as Democrats fume.

Looking for clarity on the race? Watch where Trump and Biden travel.

The Supreme Court’s ruling to limit ballot-counting in Wisconsin comes as voting battles escalate.

Trump plans to hold his election night festivities at his Washington hotel, despite crowd restrictions.

Barrett is swiftly sworn in after her Supreme Court confirmation, as Democrats fume.

 

The Senate voted 52 to 48 to confirm the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative appeals court judge, eight days before the presidential election.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

A divided Senate voted on Monday night to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, capping a lightning-fast Senate approval that handed President Trump a victory days before the election and promised to tip the court to the right for years to come.

 

In a 52-to-48 vote, all but one Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who is battling for re-election, supported Judge Barrett, a 48-year-old appeals court judge and protégée of Justice Antonin Scalia.

 

Wasting no time, Mr. Trump held an unusual nighttime swearing-in ceremony for Judge Barrett on the South Lawn of the White House, a month to the day after a mostly maskless Rose Garden event attended by multiple people who later tested positive for the coronavirus, including Mr. Trump and the first lady. Though more precautions were taken at the ceremony on Monday, neither Mr. Trump nor Justice Barrett wore masks, perhaps because both already have had the virus and could be immune.

 

Justice Clarence Thomas, who swore in his new colleague, wore no mask, either, even though he is not known to have been previously infected. None of the other seven justices attended.

 

Mr. Trump praised Justice Barrett’s “deep knowledge, tremendous poise and towering intellect,” calling her a suitable replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal stalwart who died last month and was her ideological polar opposite.

 

In her remarks, Justice Barrett seemed intent on sending the message that she would not simply do Mr. Trump’s bidding, using the words “independent” or “independence” three times, even though he has said explicitly that he wanted her seated before the election so she could lend her vote in case of a legal dispute over the balloting.

 

“A judge declares independence not only from the Congress and the president, but also from the private beliefs that might otherwise move her,” Justice Barrett said after being sworn in. “The oath I have solemnly taken tonight,” she added, “means at its core that I will do my job without any fear or favor and that I will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences.”

 

Barrett’s Record: A Conservative Who Would Push the Supreme Court to the Right

As an appeals court judge, Judge Barrett has issued opinions that have reflected those of her mentor, Justice Antonin Scalia, but with few of his occasional liberal rulings.

 

Neither Democrats nor Republicans seemed to believe that, instead commending or condemning her confirmation as a victory for conservatives and a defeat for liberals. Democrats immediately vowed on Monday night that there would be reprisals.

 

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called on Democrats to expand the court if they won the presidency and took control of the Senate, an idea that the Democratic presidential candidate, Joseph R. Biden Jr., has so far refused to co-sign. Mr. Biden instead has said that he would set up a bipartisan commission to look at ways to overhaul the court.

 

Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, excoriated her Republican colleagues in a fund-raising email to her supporters that was sent minutes after the vote.

 

“They stole another Supreme Court seat just eight days before the end of the election, after tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots, and just 15 days before the Supreme Court will hear a case that could overturn the Affordable Care Act,” Ms. Warren wrote.

 

In a statement late Monday, the Biden campaign called the Barrett confirmation “rushed and unprecedented,” and issued a call to action based on the Affordable Care Act case.

 

“If you want to say no, this abuse of power doesn’t represent you — then turn out and vote,” the statement said.

 

Justices can begin work as soon as they are sworn in, meaning Justice Barrett could be at work as early as Tuesday. The court is confronting a host of issues concerning the election and Mr. Trump’s policies, including cases from North Carolina and Pennsylvania about whether deadlines for receiving mailed ballots may be extended. Under the court’s usual practices, Justice Barrett cannot participate in cases that have already been argued, though they could be argued again before the full court if the justices are deadlocked.

 

52-48The vote capped a brazen feat for Republicans, who pushed through a Supreme Court nominee in little more than five weeks.

 

Welcome to the watch-what-they-do end of the presidential campaign. Don’t pay attention to what the candidates and their aides are saying about their how-to-win strategies in the final days. The best way to tell which states President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. think are in play is to track their campaign travel.

 

Trips are being announced just a few days in advance, and the operative word is tentative. Candidates will make last-minute adjustments to their schedules based on the latest information from overnight polls (or prodding from worried supporters).

 

Case in point: Mr. Biden paid a quick trip to Pennsylvania on Monday. This is one of the most contested states on the map, which the president narrowly won last time and where polls now show Mr. Biden ahead. Mr. Trump has spent so much time in the state in recent days that it seems only a matter of time until Pennsylvania starts hitting him up for its resident income tax.

 

Mr. Biden heads to Georgia on Tuesday and to Iowa later in the week, two states Mr. Trump won in 2016 that are on the edge of the Democrats-have-a-chance map. It’s an aggressive move. Should Mr. Biden lose next Tuesday, expect the second-guessing brigade to inspect his decision to play offense when perhaps the game called for defense, and to invoke the trip Hillary Clinton made to Arizona at the end of the 2016 campaign.

 

But he is also going to Tampa, signaling how important Florida is, and how Democrats have put the president on the defensive in a state that he needs to win. (If early returns show Mr. Biden winning Florida next week, watch Democrats begin to pop the champagne.) And he is also heading to Wisconsin, as he tries to nail down the Big Three Midwestern states — the other two are Pennsylvania and Michigan — that lifted Mr. Trump over the 270 electoral vote hurdle four years ago.

 

Mr. Trump is spending a lot of time on defense this week, heading to states that he won in 2016 and where he is struggling today: Arizona and, of course, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Assuming Mr. Trump can hold on to the rest of his 2016 map (and that may be a big assumption), he needs to hold just one of the three key Midwestern states to win re-election.

 

Interestingly, Mr. Trump is also going to Nevada, a state that Mrs. Clinton won in 2016. Nevada has not been extensively polled, and the surveys that have been done show a tight race there. Some clarity about the state of play in Nevada could come later Tuesday with the latest New York Times/Siena College Poll, which we are expecting to release around 1 p.m. Eastern.

 

— Adam Nagourney


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