Amy Coney Barrett could be sworn in to the Supreme Court as soon as Monday as poll finds a third of Democrat voters back her
Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett. (LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Amy Coney Barrett is backed by more than half of voters to be Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement on the US Supreme Court – including almost a third of Democrats – and could be sworn in as soon as Monday (October 26).
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to approve Barrett’s nomination Thursday (October 22), sending it to a full Senate vote likely to take place on Monday. According to the Associated Press, she could be sworn in just hours after the vote, eight days before the US election.
Ahead of the Senate vote, a new poll found that 51 per cent of voters back her confirmation. It’s a higher level of support than either of Donald Trump ‘s previous nominees to the Supreme Court ever received in similar polls.
Thirty-two per cent of Democrats and 44 per cent of independents said that the Senate should move to confirm Barrett, according to the Morning Consult/Politico poll from Wednesday (October 21) that surveyed 1,994 registered voters.
The proportion of Democrat voters who back Barrett’s confirmation has risen significantly, up five percentage points from the previous week, and up 18 percentage points from the day Trump nominated her. Meanwhile, the share of Democrats who say she should be voted down has fallen to 48 per cent from 55 per cent last week.
Amy Coney Barrett sparks fear among LGBT+ groups, lawmakers and voters.
The controversial conservative nominee is expected to overturn the court’s already-fragile 5-4 consensus on LGBT+ issues if confirmed to replace liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
LGBT+ rights groups, gay former presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, and James Obergefell and Rick Hodges — the two men who opposed each other in the landmark Supreme Court battle for marriage equality — have all expressed fears Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation could prove key to rolling back marriage equality.
Barrett sparked outrage at her confirmation hearing last week (October 13) by insisting she has never discriminated against LGBT+ people based on “sexual preference” – a term swiftly condemned by many LGBT+ people as being a homophobic dogwhistle. She later apologised.
The Supreme Court nominee made the comment as she was being scrutinised by Democratic senator Patrick Leahy over her ties to Alliance Defending Freedom – a listed anti-LGBT+ hate group that has brought countless cases seeking to undermine LGBT+ discrimination protections, as well as leading efforts internationally to oppose the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Asked if she was aware of ADF’s work advocating the criminalisation of gay sex when she undertook the series of lectures, Barrett claimed: “I was not aware of those efforts, no.”
It has also emerged Barrett served for nearly three years on the board of Trinity Schools Inc, a group of three schools in Indiana, Minnesota and Virginia, that reportedly teach being gay is an “abomination”, make it clear LGBT+ teachers aren’t welcome, and effectively bar the children of same-sex couples. A representative for the school clarified Barrett had no input on policy.
