Hearings are under way in the U.S. Senate this week in an attempt to confirm Amy Coney Barrett as the replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsberg on the United States Supreme Court.
I listened to the opening remarks Monday morning. Barrett pledged that she will be an impartial judge. A Republican senator spoke, followed by remarks from a Democratic senator.
Arguments against her appointment seem to center around her stand on voting issues, women’s rights and the LGBTQ community and also on how soon after Ginsberg’s death the hearings began.
As always seems to be the case with a Republican president, the Republican senators are pushing for her appointment while the Democratic senators are against it.
I hope that both sides will be fair and consider the strengths and weaknesses of the next appointment to our nation’s highest court and not on the fact that we are less than a month before the presidential elections. Why should this be a political issue? I also hope that her character is not torn apart like what happened to Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings.
Scrutiny is one thing. Vicious claims and attacks are another.
While the timing of the hearings raises some eyebrows, if she is a good choice then the timing is irrelevant. Until a new justice is appointed the Court is one justice short.
Questions surface on whether or not the court should have term limits instead of serving for life. Until the laws change this is the way it is.
We will be interested to hear our readers’ opinions on this and other issues, big and small. That is what a community newspaper is for.
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