David Corbin and Matt Parks write for the Federalist about plans to consider Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination as the next U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham has announced that hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination will begin Oct. 12 and last three to four days. There’s no reason Barrett can’t be confirmed before the election.
Four days would follow a pattern that has been in place since Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself was appointed to the court in 1993 (Brett Kavanaugh had an extra day three weeks after his initial hearings in 2018, and John Roberts, having been nominated for chief justice, had an extra day in 2005).
Graham also indicated he hopes his committee can vote on the nomination by Oct. 26, which would allow time for a vote by the full Senate later that week. Supposing that vote took place on Friday, Oct. 30, there would be 18 days from the beginning of hearings to the confirmation vote.
This too would be typical: It was 18 days for Neil Gorsuch, 24 for Sonia Sotomayor, 22 for Samuel Alito, 17 for Stephen Breyer, and 14 for Ginsburg. …
… So far, the process Senate Republicans have announced is perfectly consistent with the process their Republican and Democratic predecessors followed for the last three decades and four presidencies. If these timelines suggest an effort to “jam through” a nomination, then most of the present Supreme Court was jammed through by one Senate or another.
To be fair to Joe Biden, however, there is one period associated with the nomination that we haven’t yet considered: the time from the nomination to the beginning of hearings. This, if anywhere, is where the process has been truncated. …
… The circumstances of Barrett’s nomination are very different, however. Barrett went through the confirmation process with almost the same Senate Judiciary Committee just three years ago for her seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
