Democrats fail in last gasp attempt to delay confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court

Ms Barrett, 48, could sit on the court until the 2040s if she lives as long as Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Credit: AFP

Democratic senators on Monday failed in a last-minute attempt to delay the confirmation vote for Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee as the rapid approval process comes to a head. 

The US president’s political opponents had joined with two Republican senators in an attempt to filibuster a vote on Amy Coney Barrett but the delaying tactic was defeated.

On Monday evening Washington DC time a vote on Ms Barrett’s confirmation for the open Supreme Court seat is scheduled to take place in the US Senate.

Given the Republican majority in the body she is all but certain to be approved, which will mean Mr Trump has appointed his third justice to the nine-person court.

The confirmation will have profound and incalculable impacts on American society, given it means conservatives will have a six to three majority on the court. 

Democrats have warned it could lead in time to a weakening of abortion rights and the striking down of former president Barack Obama’s flagship healthcare law, Obamacare.

If Ms Barrett, who is 48, lives as long Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal justice who died last month, creating the open seat, Ms Barrett could still be on the court in the 2040s.

Despite the filibuster attempt failing on Sunday, leading Democratic senators continued to voice their fierce disapproval of the speedy confirmation process so soon before an election.

Elizabeth Warren, the US senator for Massachusetts who ran for this year’s Democratic presidential nomination, said the rapid approach suggested Republicans fear poor results in the election on November 3, which theoretically could see them lose the Senate majority and the White House. 

“Late last night, I spoke about why Trump and the Republican senators are willing to ram through an illegitimate Supreme Court nomination eight days before Election Day,” Mr Warren tweeted on Monday.

“The Republicans have realised a truth that shakes them down to their core: the American people are not on their side.”

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, publicly called on Mike Pence, the US vice president who presides over the chamber, not to attend the vote because of the Covid-19 outbreak among his staff.

“Vice President Pence cannot come to the Senate because of his exposure to multiple COVID-positive staffers,” Mr Schumer said.

“His purely ceremonial and non-essential presence would just put Senators, staff, and Capitol workers at risk.”

Mike Pence speaks at a rally in North Carolina on Sunday night

Credit: Reuters

Mr Pence’s spokesmen have argued that he is categorised as an essential worker and so does not need to quarantine despite the positive tests among his aides.

There were reports on Monday that if Ms Barrett is confirmed as expected Mr Trump could hold another open air White House event to mark the occasion.

The event for her naming as his nominee took place in the White House’s Rose Garden and has been dubbed a “super-spreader” event even by Mr Trump’s top infectious disease officials.

There was no social distancing or face masks at the event and more than half a dozen attendees, including the US president himself, later tested positive for Covid-19.

Holding another event for Ms Barrett at the White House would be seen as a message of defiance from Mr Trump, who has refused to markedly change his approach to public events since getting and then recovering from Covid-19.