An update on the legal aspects of the confirmation process of a SCOTUS nominee from lawyer and former conservative pundit Jennifer Rubin:
If three Republicans are incapacitated, the Senate would lack a quorum to vote on the nomination. If only two are out, a single Republican senator nevertheless could put an end to this wantonly dangerous behavior. Two Republicans have already said they oppose holding a vote for the nominee before Election Day, given the principle that McConnell used to deny Obama nominee Merrick Garland a confirmation hearing in 2016. We need a single Republican to step forward and say, Enough! Don’t bother endangering each other, because I won’t show up to jam this through. That would definitively end the whole reckless exercise. We will not have to rely on the good judgment of characters like Johnson, Lee and Tillis to absent themselves for a full 14 days or longer if need be. [WaPo]
The plot thickens. It may only be morbid curiosity, but how this all plays out will be most interesting – and, no doubt, the subject of many stories, plays, movies, and even Fringe shows, nationwide.
I wonder, if Barrett is ultimately denied a seat on SCOTUS, if those who are viewing these events through a religious lens will take this to mean that God did not mean what they thought it meant, or if it’s all the work of evil divinities. My money’s on the latter.
