Senate Judiciary Committee approves Barrett’s nomination to SCOTUS

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court on Thursday, clearing the way for a full Senate vote in the week before the election.

All 12 Republicans on the committee voted to advance the nomination, while all 10 Democrats boycotted the vote. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Wednesday afternoon that the Democrats on the committee would protest the vote, calling the confirmation process a “sham.”

With Democrats absent, large photographs of people who rely on the Affordable Care Act for their health care were placed in front of their empty chairs at the meeting. Democrats have raised concerns that Barrett would vote to overturn the ACA if confirmed to the court, given her previous criticism of a ruling upholding the law.

However, the Democrats’ boycott did not stop Republicans from moving forward with her nomination. At the meeting on Thursday morning, Graham said that it was Democrats’ “choice” to boycott the vote, but “we’re not going to allow them to take over the committee.”

Graham, who is currently embroiled in a tough reelection fight, said that confirming a conservative justice made up for the difficulties of being a senator.

“It’s moments like this that make everything you go through matter,” Graham said. “This is a groundbreaking, historic moment for the American legal community and really politically.”

Graham also reminded Democrats that they were the first to change the rules around confirming judicial nominees in 2013, when then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid invoked the “nuclear option” to require only 51 votes to confirm a judge to the federal bench, instead of 60 votes. Reid and Senate Democrats invoked the 2013 rule change to circumvent Republican filibusters of Democratic nominees. In 2017, current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used the nuclear option to require only 51 votes to confirm a judge to the Supreme Court as well.

“I remember telling Senator Schumer, ‘You will regret this.’ Today, he will regret it,” Graham said. “They started this, not me.”

Thursday’s boycott by Democrats comes as Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the committee, is under fire from members of her own party for praising Graham’s handling of the confirmation hearings.

“This is one of the best set of hearings that I have participated in,” Feinstein told Graham on the final day of confirmation hearings for Barrett last week.