RI Congressional Delegation Responds To Barrett Confirmation

Rhode Island's congressional delegation is speaking out following the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday night, just one week before the Nov. 3 presidential election.

"It is a sad day for the Senate and for the Court," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who vocally opposed the confirmation throughout the Senate hearings. "My Republican colleagues smashed norms and traditions of the world’s ‘greatest deliberative body’ in a headlong pursuit, for someone, of Supreme Court power. They put the rule of ‘because we can’ over the traditions and precedents of the Senate, the principles we hold dear as an institution, and the integrity of the federal judiciary."

Whitehouse continued:

This Trump Supreme Court nomination, like the two that preceded it, arose from a massive, sophisticated, dark-money campaign. Big corporate and right-wing donor interests, likely with business before the Court, are behind that campaign. Their influence is a rot that undermines the credibility of the Court, and a stain on our judiciary.

The rushed, special-interest ram job in the midst of a pandemic shows why we must expose that rot, from the private groups channeling hundreds of millions of dollars into judicial selection and confirmation, to the armada of orchestrated groups lobbying courts for outcomes the anonymous donors want.

With this vote, my Republican colleagues forfeit their right to call procedural fouls. And they disrespect Justice Ginsburg’s ‘fervent’ wish that her replacement be chosen by the president elected on November 3rd. Republicans may rue the day they chose the rule of 'because we can.'

Senator Jack Reed said he opposed Coney Barrett's appointment to the circuit court and opposed her confirmation to the Supreme Court.

"I opposed her then and now because all the evidence indicates her ideology will deliberately make it harder for people’s voices to be heard & for justice to be served," Reed wrote on Twitter.

Congressman David Cicilline, an outspoken opponent of President Donald Trump, said in a Twitter thread Monday night that "the American people deserve better."

"The American people should have a say in who gets a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court," he wrote in part. "By confirming Judge Barrett tonight, Republicans are making clear that they stand with the President in this shameful scheme to rip away health care from millions in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic."

Congressman Jim Langevin echoed Cicilline's sentiment, saying it was "outrageous that Senate Republicans and the Trump Administration have pushed through a Supreme Court nomination just a week before one of the most critical elections of our lifetimes."

"The hypocrisy of this nomination process is astounding," he continued. "When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to even hold a hearing, never mind a vote for President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick garland, seven months before the election, he proclaimed: 'the American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,' and advocated for the confirmation to proceed after a new president was elected. By fast-tracking this process even as Americans are casting their votes, Majority Leader McConnell is ignoring the will of the American people to advance his political agenda."