Divided Senate Confirms Amy Coney Barrett As Supreme Court Justice After Prayers, Debate
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – In what at least some conservative Christians view as an answer to prayer, Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court late Monday by a deeply divided Senate.
Republicans used their majority to overpower Democrats to install President Donald Trump’s nominee.
Trump’s choice to fill the vacancy of the late liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg potentially opens a new era of rulings on abortion, the Affordable Care Act, and even his election.
Democrats were unable to stop the outcome, Trump’s third justice on the court, as Republicans race to reshape the judiciary.
The full Senate, who worked through a rare weekend session, voted 52-48, mainly along party lines, to confirm Barrett onto the Supreme Court.
COLLINS SUPPORTS BARRETT
Senator Susan Collins from Maine was the sole Republican to join all Democrats in voting against the nominee.
That came after Alaska’s Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said over the weekend she would vote “yes” to confirm.
Democrats complained that the lifetime appointment of the 48-year-old Barrett as the 115th justice would solidify the court’s rightward tilt.
But her appointment appeared music to the ears of at least thousands of Christians who packed the National Mall in downtown Washington last month to pray and show support for President Trump and his nominee.
The march—which stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol—happened just hours before the president announced he was nominating Barrett, a conservative judge, and devout Catholic, for the Supreme Court.
PRAYERS FOR NOMINEE
Vice President Mike Pence, speaking from the steps of the memorial, said he came to extend Trump’s “greetings and gratitude” and asked them to pray for the new Supreme Court justice.
The march was organized by the Reverend Franklin Graham, a prominent conservative evangelical and Trump supporter.
“Father, our country is in trouble. We need your help,” Graham said at the time when praying during the event. “We pray today specifically for President Donald J. Trump.”
He had also urged Americans to pray last Sunday for the nation and its leaders ahead of the upcoming presidential elections on November 3.
Barrett’s confirmation as justice comes as the nation faces its worst political and social unrest in decades with riots in the streets and a coronavirus pandemic.
The Supreme Court, viewed as a beacon of stability, will soon oversee crucial cases ranging from abortion to elections and healthcare.
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