MAINE, USA — Since the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Washington politicians have taken stances on what they would do when it came time to vote on a nominee to fill her seat. Democrats and a handful of Republicans have condemned the rushed process to fill the life-long seat so close to an election, including Maine U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who maintained the decision should be made by the president elected on Nov. 3.
But Republicans, who hold the majority in the Senate, had the votes to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett without Collins, and Barrett was confirmed with a 52-48 vote on Monday night. Collins was the only Republican in the Senate to break from her party in the vote.
Collins' Democratic challenger Sara Gideon said Collins' vote "was nothing more than a political calculation."
"This vacancy should have been filled by the next President and Senate, and with the Supreme Court set to hear the case that threatens to overturn the Affordable Care Act in just over a week, I would have voted with Senator King against Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation," Gideon said in a statement.
"Amy Coney Barrett has stated views that threaten Mainers' reproductive rights and health care – including that she thinks the previous Supreme Court case upholding the Affordable Care Act was wrongly decided – views that Susan Collins was aware of when she voted to confirm her to a lifetime appointment on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Make no mistake – Susan Collins' vote tonight was nothing more than a political calculation," Gideon said.
While Collins did not give a speech on the Senate Floor as she did ahead of her controversial deciding vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, she did submit a statement to the record.
“To be clear, my vote does not reflect any conclusion that I have reached about Judge Barrett’s qualifications to serve on the Supreme Court," Collins said in the statement. "What I have concentrated on is being fair and consistent, and I do not think it is fair nor consistent to have a Senate confirmation vote prior to the election.”
Annie Clark, communications director for the Collins campaign, released a statement following the vote:
"Speaker Sara Gideon made a craven political calculation 7 months ago when she shut down the Legislature to focus on her campaign. Since then, instead of doing her current job as Maine's Speaker of the House, she's woken up every day telling herself that her most important job is defeating and replacing Susan Collins. The fact is, as New York Times Reporter Jonathan Martin recently said, Senator Collins had the exact same position prior to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death -- she believed it was too close to election day to vote on a Supreme Court nomination, given the precedent sent four years ago."
Collins' colleague in the Senate, Maine Independent Sen. Angus King called the rushed confirmation process "a disgrace" and a "mockery of our system of government."
King's full statement:
“Today’s outcome was pre-determined from the moment Mitch McConnell skipped past his shameful Merrick Garland precedent and ignored Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish – but that doesn’t make it any easier to stomach. With Americans already casting ballots across the nation, the Senate majority decided to rush a lifetime appointment before voters could be heard. Worse still, this happens as the nation needed actual leadership in the form of a coronavirus relief bill to restore stability to our economy and faith in our government. We’re meant to be a body that represents the will of the people; instead, we worked overtime so we could ignore their voices. What a disgrace to our institution.
This process was a mockery of our system of government – but even these awful proceedings may pale in comparison to now-Justice Barrett’s potential impact from the bench of our nation’s highest court. The more I’ve studied her record and dug into her legal ideology, the more concerned I’ve grown about her deeply-held, radical commitment to originalism.
In a world that is ever-changing, and with new threats that our forefathers never could have imagined, it is vital that we follow the guidance of the Constitution’s Framers while taking generational changes into account. Jefferson said it best: ‘With the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.’
Based on her judicial record and her testimony, Justice Barrett seems content to dismiss Jefferson’s argument – which is a significant danger to the country. She would have us locked into the precise wording of the 18th century, leaving no room for moral or cultural growth. Under the guise of originalism, Justice Barrett will threaten environmental protections, civil rights, reproductive rights, and much more.
Critically, and perhaps most urgently – Justice Barrett is a significant threat to the future of the Affordable Care Act. Now my colleagues’ power grab has succeeded in placing her on the court in time for Justice Barrett to become a potentially decisive vote on whether or not to strike down this law, and rip health care away from millions of Americans across the nation – in the middle of a pandemic that this White House now admits they will not get under control. Today was a tough blow, but the fight’s not over yet – and I won’t ever stop standing up for the health of our people at every possible opportunity. Nor will I stand down in working to restore public confidence in this institution, once we turn the page on this dark chapter for the U.S. Senate.”
Maine U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree didn't release an official statement but did post a series of Tweets Monday night after the vote. Pingree said if the Supreme Court is asked to weigh in on election results, as it did in the 2004 Bush-Gore election, then "Justice Barrett must recuse herself."
Pingree also tweeted that the court should be expanded. The Maine Republican Party reacted, saying Pingree "plays follow-the-leader with radical leftist [Rep. Alexandira Ocasio-Cortez]," and urged Mainers to vote for Jay Allen in the 1st Congressional District over Pingree.
Pingree's other tweets said:
"Americans are voting right now for change and this sham hyper-partisan confirmation has deprived them of a say in their future.
Voters will remember that Senate Republicans broke rules that they created for judicial candidates to stack the highest court in their favor.
So will the next Democratic majority.
If it is too close to call, the Supreme Court could be asked to weigh in on the election results as it did in Bush v. Gore.
Justice Barrett *must* recuse herself from any case connected to our 2020 election."
Rep. Jared Golden echoed his colleagues' sentiments, saying the lifelong appointment of a Supreme Court justice shouldn't have happened so close to an election. Golden largely criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, pointing out the precedent he himself set in 2016.
"[Monday's] vote is the culmination of this hypocrisy, and we should call it what it is—a partisan power grab that will only further divide the country and weaken support for all three branches of our government."
Golden's Republican opponent Dale Crafts, meanwhile, congratulated Barrett on Twitter. Crafts said, "I am for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, law and order and the American way."
Maine Independent U.S. Senate Candidate Lisa Savage said the nomination was "wrong from the start."
"The Amy Coney Barrett nomination was wrong from the start, and the Supreme Court was already too politicized, a result of the two-party system that continues to fail the people of the United States," Savage said in a statement. "I've been the only candidate in this Senate race in Maine calling for SCOTUS reform, like expanding to the Court to 18 justices with 18-year term limits, and requiring a supermajority for judicial review of federal laws. Only by electing independent, progressive voices like me will the people of Maine and the United States begin to appropriately reform our antiquated Supreme Court."
The Maine Democratic Party also criticized Collins' "show-vote."
“When Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump have needed her vote to confirm an extreme judge, Senator Collins has been with them every time,” Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Lisa Roberts said. “Now, she’s trying to use an ineffectual last-minute political show-vote to try to paper over four years of aiding and abetting the far-right takeover of our courts. Mainers can see right through this, and they’re ready to replace Collins in the Senate.”
