THIS is How We’re Replacing RBG?
by Isabella Zollner
Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing was a montage of idiocracy and nepotism from Republican Senators. The entire confirmation process, from beginning to end, was ridiculously corrupt. The fact that so many Republican Senators, the President, and Amy Coney Barrett herself went back on their word in the most hypocritical way possible is only the beginning of the crookedness.
Within a week of RBG’s death, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, and various other Republican governmental representatives were calling for her replacement. With almost no time for reflection or mourning, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump were working on securing the most conservative replacement for RBG they could find. Before RBG’s funeral had even been held, Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett. He had only 8 days for consideration. Of course, we all know the reason for his rushed nomination was because Trump, Mitch McConnell, and many of the other Senators key to this confirmation knew they were on thin ice during this confirmation. This is obviously because of their hypocritical and amoral statements surrounding Trump’s right to confirm Amy Coney Barrett.
In 2016, the last year of Obama’s presidency, justice Antonin Scalia died at 79. President Obama had the time and presidential power to nominate the next supreme court justice. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell managed to halt the confirmation of Merrick B. Garland. On the Senate floor during the confirmation hearing for Judge Merrick B. Garland Mitch McConnell made disgustingly childish and inappropriate statements about the nominations,
“It is a President’s constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and it is the Senate’s constitutional right to act as a check on a President and withhold its consent…I believe the overwhelming view of the Republican Conference in the Senate is that this nomination should not be filled, this vacancy should not be filled by this lame duck president.”
Mitch McConnell, who is currently busy spouting falsehoods about the qualifications of Amy Coney Barrett, refused to move Obama’s Supreme Court nominee forward for a vote in the Senate. What’s even more despicable, Obama had more time to properly choose and confirm a justice than the confirmation process for Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Scalia died in February of an election year — there were nine months before a new election. Compare this to the 34 days from nomination to confirmation for Amy Coney Barrett. But because of Mitch McConnell’s lies and dramatizations, Obama was prevented from nominating a justice and instead President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh.
And once again, Mitch McConnell is using his power in the Senate and the media to nominate the youngest justice in history NINE days before the election. This man, who said that nine months were not enough time to nominate a justice, is now in full hypocritical support of nominating a justice with only weeks to do so. This is disgustingly despicable.
And if it isn’t enough for you to hear that Mitch McConnell is lying and taking advantage of the American public, you could listen to Amy Coney Barrett herself. During the nomination process in 2016 Amy Coney Barrett spoke on CBSN. She made some very good points about why a justice shouldn’t be appointed close to an election. Of course ‘close’ to the election is a relative term that I think more fits Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination than Judge Merrick’s nomination.
Amy Coney Barrett also points out, once again very brilliantly, that Obama wanted to replace a very conservative judge with a very liberal judge. She claims that flipping a justice seat is the kind inappropriate leadership that the American people do not want. All of this was very well and good for her in 2016 when she got her time in the spotlight for siding with Mitch McConnell and refusing to let Obama appoint a justice. But now Amy Coney Barrett finds herself the benefactor of the exact situation that she publicly and thoroughly denounced as corrupt.
But this isn’t just the hypocrisy, lies, and contemptuous behavior of Republicans involved in Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination that disrespects RBG’s memory. The Republican Senators who reeked of nepotism during Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation were equally disgusting. Throughout the hearing, Amy Coney Barrett floundered and failed to answer the simplest of questions Republican Senators managed to turn it to their advantage nearly every time.
Take, for example, Amy Coney Barrett’s refusal to answer various politically centered questions. Barrett was asked about her legal views on climate change, the ability of a President to pardon himself, voter intimidation, and overall presidential power. She cited a rule that originated around the time of RBG’s confirmation hearing, commonly referred to as ‘The Ginsburg Rule’. This rule says that a Supreme Court Justice can not indicate how they will rule on issues that are likely to come before the Supreme Court. And while that rule may excuse her negligence to answer some questions, plenty of her unanswered questions were not directly related to how she would rule on upcoming cases. Amy Coney Barrett purposefully neglected to answer questions because she knew her stance on topics like the reality of climate change would endanger her position on the Supreme Court.
Amy Coney Barrett was also asked at one point what was on her notepad. She held up a blank notepad with a guilty little smirk and showed off her blank notepad. Many Republican Senators are purporting that this is a show of her extensive memory and skill in legal practice. It suggests, to me at least, that she came unprepared to the most important interview of her life. Besides, failing to remember the first amendment hardly suggests that Amy Coney Barrett is skilled in legal practice.
Replacing RBG, who pioneered the way for thousands of women in the legal field with Amy Coney Barrett who did her best to eliminate every opportunity that RBG created for women is despicable. The hypocrisy that Mitch McConnell, and other Republican Senators, showed is likewise corrupted. And the worst part is that Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed and we couldn’t stop it. We don’t know the extent of what is now at risk. It is plausible that Amy Coney Barrett will vote to overturn the Affordable Care Act, Roe V. Wade, and the legality of LGBTQIA+ marriage. I’d love to leave you on a high note or explain that if we campaign hard enough we could prevent this. But we can’t undo the fact that Amy Coney Barrett will now serve on the Supreme Court for the rest of her life. We lost this fight and the reason for that goes all the way back to the 2016 election when 44.5% of eligible Americans did not vote. We cannot repeat that mistake. We cannot let Trump pillage and destroy our country for four more years. You have to vote so these atrocities do continue to rip our country and our constitution apart.
About the Author:
After being subjected to homophobic harassment in the classroom, Isabella decided to try and use her writing to encourage others to stand up for each other and themselves. Isabella is a high school student in Lafayette, IN.
