STATE

Rick Scott says Amy Coney Barrett to be confirmed by end of October

Wendy Rhodes
Palm Beach Post
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., (center) and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., (left) at a coronavirus briefing in March on Capitol Hill.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, the Florida Republican and former governor, did not mince words on a conference call Monday while calling out Democratic colleagues' attempts to postpone the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. 

"She’s surely well-qualified," he said of Barrett, who only became a judge in 2017 after being nominated by President Trump. "She wants to interpret the law, not make the law."

Scott said Democrats' resistance to the high court nomination and the newest coronavirus stimulus package is a "disgrace."

"They are disingenuous," he said. "They don’t want to do anything.”

But it was Trump who last week called off negotiations on the stimulus package, saying in a Twitter post that the Barrett confirmation should take priority.

In an about-face days later, Trump blamed Democrats for stalling stimulus negotiations, saying he was ready to sign a bill, which has not been done. On Monday's call, Scott said he believes a stimulus package will be passed before Election Day, Nov. 3. 

The Supreme Court seat became available on Sept. 18 with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If confirmed, Barrett would be the third justice confirmed at Trump's recommendation. Supreme Court justices serve for life, and Barrett's confirmation would tip the ideological balance of the court to further to the right, with a 6-3 conservative majority. 

MORE: Fight for Florida: Rally marks Trump's return to campaign trail

Conservatives Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh were confirmed under Trump in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

In 2016, Senate Republicans refused to meet with President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland. 

Garland's nomination followed the Feb. 13, 2016, death of Antonin Scalia almost 10 months before the general election. At the time, however, Republicans refused to even meet with Garland — let alone hold confirmation hearings —because they said it was unfair to replace a Supreme Court justice during an election year. 

“I don’t think we should be moving forward on a nominee in the last year of this president’s term," Florida senator and Republican Marco Rubio said on March 17, 2016. "I would say that if this was a Republican president.”

As it turns out, however, he wouldn't.

Rubio, Scott and other Republicans argue that the difference between 2016 and today is that in 2016, the government then was divided between a Democratic president and a Republican-led Senate. It's unfair to compare that to today, they say, because both the executive branch and the Senate are led by Republicans, and the government has a duty to fill the seat expeditiously. 

But these are new arguments.

"The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in February 2016. "Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president."

MORE: Election Countdown: Trump returns to Florida as Biden plans his own visit

At the time, other Republican senators said they agreed with McConnell. Right after Scalia's death, they penned a letter stating that they would refuse to meet with any nominee until a new president was elected. They held firm to that position, stonewalling any attempt to even consider Garland. The move left the seat sat vacant for 14 months.

But now, the tables have turned. And with seven million votes already cast — including over one million in Florida — Scott said on the call that the Senate plans to confirm Barrett by the last week of October. That would be one month after her nomination and only six weeks after Ginsburg's death. 

"Now, all of a sudden this Administration believes they’ve found a loophole in the tragedy of Justice Ginsburg’s death," Joe Biden wrote in a Sept. 27 statement. "It doesn’t matter to them that Republicans set the precedent just four years ago when they denied even the courtesy of a hearing to President Obama’s nominee after Justice Scalia passed away nine months prior to Election Day. It doesn’t matter to them that millions of Americans are already voting on a new President and a new Congress. They see an opportunity to overturn the Affordable Care Act on their way out the door."

Trump has been fighting to overturn the Obama administration's key health-care legislature on which 20 million Americans — including two million in Florida — rely on for insurance, Biden points out. He said that Barrett is expected to be the deciding vote to take that insurance away, and she is also expected to vote in favor of overturning the Roe. v. Wade decision that protects abortion rights.

MORE: Trump strategy is to label Biden a 'socialist.' Will it work in Florida? 

For conservatives, the rush to nominate Barrett may be politically warranted. 

Biden has surged ahead of Trump by more than 10 points, according to a USA TODAY analysis of polling averages calculated by RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight.

And it is not only a GOP presidency that is in jeopardy. Republican senators Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine are among those facing very real threats from Democratic opponents. Any delay with Barrett's nomination could spell disaster for conservatives if they lose both the presidency and Senate.

@WendyRhodesFL