WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amy Coney Barrett was formally sworn in Tuesday as the Supreme Court’s ninth justice, her oath administered in private by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Her first votes on the court could include two big topics affecting the man who appointed her.
The court is weighing a plea from President Donald Trump to prevent the Manhattan district attorney from acquiring his tax returns. It is also considering appeals from the Trump campaign and Republicans to shorten the deadline for receiving and counting absentee ballots in the battleground states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County filed legal papers at the court Tuesday arguing that Barrett should not take part in the Pennsylvania case. It’s not clear if she will vote in the pending cases, but she will make that call.
The Senate voted 52-48 in favor of Barrett’s nomination, with every Democrat voting in opposition. She is expected to begin work as a justice on Tuesday after taking the second of two oaths required of judges by federal law. No justice has assumed office so close to a presidential election or immediately confronted issues so directly tied to the incumbent president’s political and personal fortunes.
Barrett declined to commit to Democratic demands that she step aside from any cases on controversial topics, including a potential post-election dispute over the presidential results.
Other election-related issues are pending at the high court, which next week also will hear a clash of LGBTQ rights and religious freedoms. The fate of the Affordable Care Act is on the agenda on Nov. 10, and Trump himself last week reiterated his opposition to the Obama-era law. “I hope they end it,” he said in an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”
On Friday, Barrett, the most open opponent of abortion rights to join the court in decades, also could be called upon to weigh in on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. The state is appealing lower court rulings invalidating the ban. Abortion opponents in Pittsburgh also are challenging a so-called bubble zone that prevents protesters from getting too close to abortion clinics.
The court put off acting on both cases before Barrett joined the court, without offering any explanation in the Mississippi case. It ordered Pittsburgh to file a response to the appeal filed by the protesters, who call themselves sidewalk counselors.
It’s not clear that the public will know how Barrett voted in the two abortion cases because the court typically doesn’t make the vote counts public when it is considering whether to grant full review to cases.
Barrett is joining the court at an unusual moment. The justices are meeting remotely by telephone because of the coronavirus pandemic, both for their private conferences and public argument sessions, at least through the end of 2020. The public can listen to the arguments as they take place, a change also resulting from the court’s response to the pandemic.
After her first private conference with her new colleagues on Friday, two weeks of arguments begin on Monday. In an institution that pays strict attention to seniority, Barrett will go last in the private and public sessions.
Prior to Monday's vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called Barrett "one of the brilliant, admired and well-qualified nominees in our lifetime."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who voted against advancing Barrett’s nomination on Sunday, ultimately joined her fellow Republicans in a final vote of support. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was the only Republican to oppose Barrett’s confirmation.
Barrett’s appointment to the nation’s highest court comes after a contentious and partisan confirmation process.
Barrett is the first Supreme Court Justice in modern history to be confirmed without any support from the minority party, and the closest high court confirmation ever to a presidential election.
Before the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) warned Republicans that voters that "the American people will never forget this blatant act of bad faith.”
"You may win this vote and Amy Coney Barrett may become the next associate justice of the Supreme Court, but you will never, never get your credibility back," he said. "And the next time the American people give Democrats a majority in this chamber, you will have forfeited your right to tell us how to run that majority."
McConnell said on the decades of battles on judicial nominees, "I understand my Democratic friends seem to be terribly persuaded by their version of all of this."
"All I can tell you is I was there, I know what happened, and my version is totally accurate," he claimed.
Not one to let the historic moment pass, President Trump celebrated the event with a swearing-in at the White House. Justice Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court, administered the Constitutional Oath.
Prior to the swearing in, Trump said, "today is a momentous day for America, the United States Constitution, and for the fair and impartial rule of law."
"The Constitution is the ultimate defense of American liberty, and the faithful application of the law is the cornerstone of our republic," he added.
After she was sworn in, Barrett thanked the Senate for "giving its consent to my appointment."
"I pledge to you and to the American people that I will discharge my duties to the very best of my ability," she said.
Barrett pledged to the American people that "even though we don't face elections, we work for you," adding, "I will do the job independently of the political branches and my own preferences."
“I love the Constitution and the democratic republic it establishes. And I will devote myself to preserving it,” she said.
Barrett will take the Judicial Oath in at a second ceremony at the Supreme Court Tuesday.
In an interview with Spectrum News, Olivia Troye, a former advisor to Vice President Mike Pence and former aide on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, called the decision to host a ceremony at the White House "reckless."
"Gathering people at the White House when there's significant exposure there and they've had several outbreaks this past month – within a matter of weeks – and they have another outbreak happening right now," she added. "There's a cluster there, within the Vice President's office. And then they're gonna hold this event and show America once again that they just don't care."
The 48-year-old Barrett likely secures a conservative court majority for the foreseeable future, potentially opening a new era of rulings on abortion, gay marriage and the Affordable Care Act. A case against the Obama-era health law is scheduled to be heard Nov. 10.
Democrats have collectively called Barrett’s hearings and subsequent approval a “sham,” decrying their Republican colleagues’ decision to push through a nominee so close to an election. Democrats fear that Barrett’s ascent will open up a potential new era of rulings on abortion, gay marriage and the Affordable Care Act, as a case against the Obama-era health law is scheduled to be heard Nov. 10.
But Republicans have defended their actions, excited by the prospect of installing a third Trump justice on the court and locking in a conservative majority for years to come — precisely what Democrats fear.
Several pre-election matters are awaiting decision just a week before Election Day, and Barrett could be a decisive vote in Republican appeals of orders extending the deadline for absentee ballots in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
The justices also are weighing Trump’s emergency plea for the court to prevent the Manhattan District Attorney from acquiring his tax returns.
On Sunday, McConnell said, “a lot of what we’ve done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election,” adding that unlike legislative actions that can be undone by new presidents or lawmakers, “they won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”
The same day, Schumer slammed Republicans for being “willing to ignore the pandemic to rush this Supreme Court nomination forward” and urged Americans not to forget what transpired in the process.
“It is a travesty,” Schumer added. “A travesty for the Senate. A travesty for the country. And it will be an inerasable stain on this Republican majority forevermore.”
Throughout the hearings, both Barrett and her conservative supporters in the Senate maintained that despite her personal beliefs, the judge would not employ activism from the bench.
Barrett presented herself in public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a neutral arbiter and at one point suggested, “It’s not the law of Amy.”
“She’s a conservative woman who embraces her faith, she’s unabashedly pro-life but she’s not going to apply ‘the law of Amy’ to all of us,” committee chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said late Saturday on Fox News.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.