Senate Confirms Amy Coney Barrett for SCOTUS

Trump’s Senate Allies Pushed Amy Coney Barrett’s Confirmation Through as Americans Languished Without New Relief

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Moments ago, senators voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett for a seat on the Supreme Court. Barrett’s lifetime appointment follows one of the most rushed and least transparent high court confirmation processes in the nation’s recent history. Amid this eleventh-hour push, the pandemic has been worsening — and with COVID-19 cases spiking nationwide, Americans are in dire straits without a new relief package.

In recent days, the U.S. set frightening new daily records of COVID-19 cases, a new hotspot popped up in the White House, and experts warned that more than 500,000 people could die in the U.S. by February. Amid this chaos, mom-and-pop businesses are struggling to hang on, with Black-owned businesses at particularly high risk of permanent closure. Almost 65 million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance since the start of the pandemic, and the nation’s true unemployment rate — those who do not have a full-time job that pays a living wage — is 26.1% for all Americans and a jaw-dropping 59.2% for Black Americans. Mass evictions and more job losses loom, and food insecurity continues.

But President Trump and his Senate allies have left businesses, workers, and their families behind, actively stalling relief talks in lieu of advancing their radical judicial agenda. 

“Amid an historic public health crisis that has already taken more than 225,000 lives in the U.S. alone, Trump and his Senate allies have gone full speed ahead on confirming their extremist Supreme Court pick while leaving hurting Americans in the dust,” said Kyle Herrig, president of government watchdog Accountable.US. “Small business owners, workers, and families are desperate for support — and lawmakers and the president abandoned them in order to focus on jamming through a historically non-transparent and extreme Supreme Court pick. Senators should be ashamed of themselves.”

Despite a wealth of information about Barrett’s record still being hidden from the public, the newly confirmed justice’s judicial history includes deeply concerning patterns of ruling in favor of corporations over workers, consumers, and those alleging discrimination, law enforcement entities over those alleging harm, and against immigrants.