Even before Amy Coney Barrett was announced as President Trump’s nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Republican senators made clear their intention to confirm a new justice prior to the 2021 presidential inauguration. This entire process has been met with anger from Democrats, who pointed to Republicans’ refusal to hold a vote on Barack Obama’s Court nominee in 2016 on the grounds that it was an election year. As it was four years ago, the Supreme Court has become a contentious battleground in Democrats’ and Republicans’ jockeying for power in Washington.
The loser in these fights is none other than the Supreme Court itself. The Court was designed by the founders of this nation to serve as an independent arbiter of justice, divorced from the political squabbling that the authors of the Constitution expected in Congress. When nominations become partisan contests, the Court loses its luster as a body meant to interpret the law outside the influence of politics.
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