Nothing will stop Mitch McConnell from confirming Amy Coney Barrett. Not even Covid

Senate majority leader views remaking the federal bench in his conservative image as the crowning achievement of his time alongside Mr Trump, US political correspondent Griffin Connolly writes

Virtually nothing has stopped Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from confirming federal judges at an unprecedented pace over the last three and a half years.

And if you think a few Covid-19 cases among Senate Republicans might prevent him from confirming Supreme Court justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett to cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court — well, just stop.

It’s happening.

Even if the final confirmation vote doesn’t come until after the election, Mr McConnell is not squandering what he sees as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bend the US political landscape towards his ideology for long after he has retired from the Senate.

Mr McConnell views remaking the federal bench in his conservative image as the crowning achievement of his time alongside Mr Trump, the one thing above all others that has motivated him to plough forward — head down, blinders on — as the president has run roughshod over ethical norms in Washington and Republican policy ideals.

“The most significant, long-lasting accomplishment of the last four years is the president, coupled with this Republican majority in the Senate, has been putting people — young men and women — on the bench who believe in the quaint notion that maybe the job of a judge is to actually follow the law,” Mr McConnell said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday.

The Kentucky Republican, who is up for re-election this year and has been touting that record on the campaign trail, ticked off the staggering numbers: 53 appeals court judges; more than 200 federal district court judges; and two Supreme Court justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

“Now we have an opportunity to put another Supreme Court justice in place,” Mr McConnell said in his interview with Mr Hewitt.

The crusade to reshape the federal judiciary “will reap benefits for the American people for decades to come,” he said.

Democrats have already publicly pressured — in vain — their Republican counterparts to stick to their word in 2016 not to vote on seating Supreme Court nominees during presidential election years.

The Senate GOP has made a predictable about-face on that position in order to confirm Ms Barrett after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the progressive icon who sat on the high court for 27 years, died last month, just seven weeks before the 3 November elections.

By contrast, Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace the late Antonin Scalia in February 2016, more than seven months out from that year’s election. Republicans refused to meet with Mr Garland at the time, and did not hold confirmation hearings.

Now, with news that two Senate Judiciary Republicans — Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah — have tested positive for Covid-19 and are experiencing symptoms, Senate Democrats are admonishing Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham to “halt” Ms Barrett’s nomination process, which they have cast as “illegitimate” because millions of Americans have already cast ballots for the 2020 general election.

If Mr Graham persists with the confirmation hearings, which are scheduled to begin on 12 October, he should institute a “thorough testing procedure that is in accordance with CDC best practices before hearings can take place,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement on Monday.

Mr Schumer is calling on protocol that would require every senator and relevant staffer to have negative test results on two consecutive days, complete an “appropriate quarantining period” if they have been exposed to someone who has the virus, and take a test every day of the hearing.

The minority leader has called for an “independent entity”, such as the attending physician of the US Congress, to administer the tests.

“Failure to implement a thorough testing approach would be intentionally reckless, and could reasonably lead some [to] wonder if Chairman Graham and Leader McConnell may not want to know the results, because it could delay this already illegitimate process,” Mr Schumer said on Monday.

But Senate Republicans have fired back that they can continue holding committee hearings where members attend via live video conference, as some have been for months.

When Democrats inevitably try to derail Ms Barrett’s committee confirmation hearings with various motions to adjourn, Mr Graham can swat them down without recording any votes, as then-GOP Chairman Chuck Grassley did during the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

It doesn’t even matter if Republicans lack the physical presence of a majority on the panel: motions and votes in committee hearings are only in order during executive business meetings, such as votes on subpoenaing witnesses, bill markups, and rules changes.

The confirmation hearings for Ms Barrett will not fall in that category.

Mr Grassley simply did not entertain motions to dismiss during the Kavanaugh hearings, and Mr Graham is expected to follow suit when the hearings commence on 12 October.

A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Republicans confirmed to The Independent on Monday that 22 October is still the committee’s target date to vote to advance Ms Barrett’s nomination to the Senate floor for final confirmation.

Several Republicans have said nothing would stop them from casting votes to help seat Ms Barrett on the Supreme Court — not even a Covid-19 diagnosis.

“Since May, the Judiciary Committee has operated flawlessly through a hybrid method that has seen some Senators appear physically at its hearings while other members have participated virtually,” Mr McConnell said on Friday.

“The Committee has utilised this format successfully for many months while protecting the health and safety of all involved. Certainly all Republican members of the committee will participate in these important hearings,” he said.