Monday round-up
on Oct 26, 2020 at 9:39 am
The Senate is expected to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Monday, and the White House is planning an outdoor swearing-in ceremony that could occur as soon as Monday night. Fifty-one votes are needed in the Senate to confirm Barrett, and Republicans, who hold a slim majority in the chamber, are expected to confirm her with no Democratic support. Barrett would fill the seat formerly held by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Sept. 18. All of SCOTUSblog’s coverage of Barrett’s jurisprudence and her nomination is available here.
Over the weekend, the Pennsylvania Republican Party petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down a three-day extension of Pennsylvania’s deadline for mail-in ballots to be received in order to be counted. The Republicans’ petition came just a few days after the Supreme Court declined to issue an emergency ruling putting the extension on hold. The Pennsylvania case joins two other election disputes involving voting rules in swing states — one from Wisconsin and one from North Carolina — that are currently pending before the justices. If Barrett is confirmed and sworn in Monday, it is possible that she could participate in those cases.
Here’s a round-up of other Supreme Court-related news and commentary from around the web:
- Understanding the Pennsylvania GOP Hail Mary Fighting the Extended Deadline for Receipt of Mailed Ballots, and the Awful Pressure that the GOP’s Petition Could Put on Soon-to-Be Justice Barrett (Rick Hasen, Election Law Blog)
- Barrett will complicate John Roberts’ goal of keeping the Supreme Court out of politics (Joan Biskupic, CNN)
- Barrett Could Be Decisive in Election Cases (Kenneth Jost, Jost on Justice)
- Barrett’s Administrative Law Opinions Should Be Given Due Deference (Brian Walsh, Committee For Justice)
- Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s Slim Judicial Record on First Amendment Issues (Tony Mauro, Freedom Forum)
We rely on our readers to send us links for our round-up. If you have or know of a recent (published in the last two or three days) article, post, podcast or op-ed relating to the Supreme Court that you’d like us to consider for inclusion, please send it to roundup@scotusblog.com. Thank you!
