NEW YORK: Win or lose next week's election, US President Donald Trump has sealed his long-term legacy with the Senate approval of Amy Coney Barrett as the new Supreme Court Justice by getting three conservative judges on the bench entrenching it firmly on the right for years to come.
After receiving 52 votes of the Republican Party senators on Monday, just eight days before the presidential election, Barrett was sworn-in at a White House ceremony, where she declared: "A judge declares independence, not only from Congress and the President, but also from the private beliefs that might otherwise move her." And Trump said: "Justice Barrett made clear she will issue rulings based solely upon a faithful reading of the law and the Constitution as written, not legislate from the bench." Those were attempts to rebut criticism of Barrett for her conservative views by Democrats who opposed her nomination.
All 47 of them voted against her nomination and were joined by one Republican, Susan Collins, who is facing re-election from Maine, a liberal state. With her addition to the bench, three of the six conservatives will be Trump's nominees setting the nine-member court firmly on that side of the ideological divide.
A conservative judge, Clarence Thomas, who is African-American, gave Barett the ceremonial oath of office less than two hours after her nomination was approved by the Senate. But she will be formally sworn-in on Tuesday at the Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Much to the dismay of the liberals, Barrett succeeds former Democratic President Bill Clinton's nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg,the resounding voice of liberalism on the bench who died last month after a 27-year Supreme Court career studded with liberal opinions.
Barrett was a law professor before she became a judge of a federal circuit court, which functions as an appeals court with multi-state jurisdiction just below the Supreme Court.
Only the fifth woman to serve on the Supreme Court, she is only 48 years old with the possibility of a long stint in the nation's highest court. She has seven children, two of them of African-descent adopted from Haiti.
Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris, a member of the Senate who voted against Barrett, tweeted that the confirmation was "an illegitimate process" which "we will not forget".
The Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell flipped from his 2016 stand asserting this time the legal right of the sitting president to make nominations and for the Senate to approve it. Biden, who has not quite affirmed his stand either way, has said that he would appoint a commission to look into the issue.
One of the worrisome factors for the Democrats is that the court may be called on to resolve cases involving the November 3 election as it had in the close election in 2000 in which Republican George W. Bush was declared the winner over Democrat Al Gore despite polling fewer popular votes. Vice President Mike Pence, who is the president of the Senate, stayed away from the confirmation session.
Barrett's Catholic religion is a factor in US politics because nation-wide right to abortions is not a settled issue and abortions are opposed by the Catholic Church, as well as Protestant Christian fundamentalists.
The court may have to rule on cases involving certain aspects of abortions like some states tightening the regulations to a degree that it almost becomes unavailable. The composition of the US Supreme Court is unusual because it has only one member, Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch, who is a Protestant Christian in a country where a majority belong to it, and even he grew up a Catholic before switching to the Episcopal sect. Including Barrett, six judges will be Catholics and two Jewish. (IANS)