WISCONSIN— President Trump has nominated U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
If confirmed, Barrett would be the youngest Supreme Court Justice, and her tenure could last for decades.
The president has long promised to choose a candidate who would uphold conservative values on the nation’s highest court, and his pick will certainly deliver.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says he plans to vote for her to just that when the Senate is asked to make a decision.
“Less than three years ago, Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed on a bipartisan basis because a judge on the Federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. I was pleased to vote for her then, and I expect to support her confirmation as a justice on the Supreme Court," Johnson says.
Contrastingly, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) says she does not plan to vote at all until after the November 3 presidential election.
“The American people should vote in this election before the Senate votes on a nomination to the Supreme Court. That was the standard imposed on President Obama by Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans and the same standard should apply now to President Trump," Baldwin says. “I will not vote for a nominee to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court until after the American people have voted and our next President and new Senate have taken office."
She claims that this nomination furthers President Trump's political agenda instead of taking the American people into account.
“President Trump wants to overturn the Affordable Care Act completely and take away people's health care and protections for pre-existing health conditions in the middle of a pandemic. Trump wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and have the government take away reproductive freedoms for women. Now he has nominated an activist judge to do what he wants, instead of giving the American people a voice on these important issues first," she says.
The 48-year-old federal appeals court judge was considered for the Supreme Court in 2018 when then-Justice Anthony Kennedy retired, before Trump nominated Kenndy’s former clerk Brett Kavanaugh.
"I'm saving her for Ginsburg," Trump once said privately of Barrett, Axios reported.