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President Trump nominated his pick to fill the appeals court vacancy left by Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. A White House statement on Monday announced that the nomination of Thomas Kirsch II, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana, was sent to the Senate for consideration. "Thomas L. Kirsch II, of Indiana, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit, vice Amy Coney Barrett, elevated," the statement said. The White House announced that Kirsch, an Indiana University and Harvard Law graduate, was Trump's pick for the vacancy weeks ago, but the notice on Monday now...

Video at link. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called Amy Coney Barrett “an illegitimate Supreme Court justice" during an Election Day news conference on Tuesday, just one week after Barrett was confirmed as President Trump's third Supreme Court pick. “The president is installing an illegitimate Supreme Court justice one week before the election, after 60 million Americans have voted, who will dismantle the ACA, and won’t say, by the way, when asked, by Sen. [Dianne] Feinstein [D-Calif.], do you think Medicare is constitutional? She said she really couldn’t say." The GOP-led Senate confirmed Barrett in a largely party-line 52-48 vote...

This will be a weekly post. Count is now 220 judges confirmed 2 Trade Court judges 162 District Court judges 53 Circuit Court judges 3 Supreme Court justices We've been waiting for this one! Only one judge confirmed this week. But it was a doozy!! On Monday, Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed by the US Senate to the Supreme Court of the United States! Take a look at the above numbers and picture yourself four years ago, the weekend before the election. The above would be unthinkable, impossible even. But it's real. Leave out the three (yes THREE) Supreme Court...

Live feed of Senate hearing

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on Saturday that she intends to vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court despite her objections to the process of taking up the nomination weeks before the election. Murkowski previously indicated that she wouldn’t support filling a Supreme Court vacancy before the election due to its proximity to Nov. 3 and a precedent that Republicans established in 2016 when considering President Barrack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. She said during a speech on the Senate floor during a rare Saturday session that while she still opposes the process, she does...

A procedural vote is set for Sunday, final confirmation on MondayThe Senate will gavel in a rare Saturday session this afternoon to debate confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court -- just days before voters decide whether Republicans will maintain control of the Senate and the White House. Democrats, fiercely opposed to Barrett's confirmation so close to the election, boycotted the Judiciary Committee vote Thursday and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., staged four delay tactics Friday on the Senate floor, including forcing a brief closed session.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett won crucial backing Saturday when one of the last Republican holdouts against filling the seat during an election season announced support for President Donald Trump’s pick ahead of a confirmation vote expected Monday.

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett won crucial backing Saturday when one of the last Republican holdouts announced her support for President Donald Trump's pick ahead of a confirmation vote expected Monday. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said during Saturday’s session that while she opposed her party’s decision to push ahead with the nomination process so close to the Nov. 3 presidential election, she supported the federal judge who is on track to lock in a conservative court majority for years to come...

"Frankly, I've lost that procedural fight" and said she [Murkowski] was making a decision on confirming Barrett based on the judge's legal philosophy.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she'll vote to put Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court. The Republican had backed waiting until after the election to fill the seat. watch her statement...

With Murkowski's Announcement, Amy Coney Barrett's SCOTUS Confirmation Is Assured Okay, I might have overreacted toward Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), but her vote to not enter an executive session in the Senate regarding the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett should have raised red flags for everyone at the time. This is the weak sauce caucus, folks. Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins (R-ME) are the three amigos when it comes to making trouble within our ranks in the Senate.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, asked a question pertaining to an issue that came up quite a bit during Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing but had yet to come up during Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s hearing: whether the Supreme Court nominee had ever sexually assaulted someone. Citing a statement from Chief Justice John Roberts in 2017 in which he acknowledged that the judiciary “is not immune” from the problem of sexual misconduct, Hirono said it is her duty “to ensure the fitness of nominees” for positions that have lifetime appointments. “Since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted...

Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett held up a blank notepad when Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) asked her to show the public the notes she’s been using to answer the numerous questions spat at her during day two of the confirmation hearings. “Most of us have multiple notebooks and notes and books, things like that in front of us,” said Sen. Cornyn (video below). “Can you hold up what you’ve been referring to in answering our questions?”

The Senate Judiciary Committee began the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Monday to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The hearing is expected to last about four days. The first day was devoted to opening remarks by the members of the committee, with Judge Barrett delivering her powerful prepared statement towards the end of the day’s session. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, started things off by providing assurances that the in-person hearings were being conducted in compliance with CDC protocols. He praised Judge Barrett’s record and character....

Should Amy Coney Barrett recuse herself from California v. Texas, the case challenging Obamacare? Chuck Schumer has called for it: video Schumer argues that Barrett has “clearly said she’d strike down the Affordable Care Act” and has “serious conflicts of interest” regarding the ACA. On the former point, as I have detailed at length, while Barrett in her academic writing has indicated her disagreement with the 2012 NFIB decision upholding the individual mandate as an exercise of the taxing power, she did not give a view on whether she agreed with Justice Antonin Scalia that the whole law should be...

Amy Coney Barrett was a star student in her three years at the University of Notre Dame’s law school, graduating at the top of her class. A few years later she was back as a professor, at age 30. She wore glasses to look more imposing, she said in a talk last year. One of her students at the time, seeing her standing near the podium, thought she was a classmate. But the impression was quickly dispatched. “The moment she opened her mouth, you know she’s brilliant,” said Patrick Kilbane, now an attorney in Florida. *** According to students, former...

A broad coalition of lawmakers, public interest groups, and grassroots citizens rallied behind Amy Coney Barrett in her first day of hearings today for confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to senators on the Judiciary Committee evaluating her nomination, Barrett handled the first day of hearings with grace, humility, and tenacity. “[Barrett] acknowledged the fact that so much of what the Democrats said today was bunk, and she did it with a smile, and she did it without having to use the word jackwagon or anything close to it,” Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said. “She did it by...

... at her Senate confirmation hearing

With the disgraceful spectacle of the Kavanaugh hearings still fresh in many people’s memories, America is about to witness another Supreme Court confirmation process, one that may make the last one look dignified by comparison. That would be a shame, because Judge Amy Coney Barrett is a sterling nominee who has shown a reverence for America’s laws and sovereignty. In her Rose Garden introduction as the nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Judge Barrett threw down the gauntlet. “I love the United States and I love the United States Constitution,” she said. While that may sound admirable to most people,...