Photo courtesy of Senator Roger Wicker’s Office
Following a vote largely along party lines, Amy Coney Barrett has been confirmed as the ninth justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Barrett, who was nominated by President Trump following the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Among those supporting Barrett’s confirmation were Mississippi Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith.
“I have never seen a more talented, more articulate nominee for the United States Supreme Court than I have in this new justice, Amy Coney Barrett.
“I think she will make us all proud. We have no idea the specific decisions that she will make, but I do know she was taught under the guidance of Justice Scalia, one of the great heroes of the Supreme Court. I think she will interpret the law as it is written by the legislative branch, and I think she will interpret the Constitution as it was written by our Founding Fathers.
“This is a very significant day. I could not be more delighted in the outcome, and I give my best wishes to Justice Barrett,” Senator Wicker said.
“The Senate has rarely ever had a nominee with the exceptional qualifications and characteristics of Judge Amy Coney Barrett. I’ve never been more confident of a vote for a nominee than I am in voting for Judge Barrett. She will be a conservative jurist committed to interpreting the law and not legislating from the bench. In the years ahead, I believe the American people will be proud to have Judge Barrett on the Supreme Court,” Senator Hyde-Smith said.
Senate Democrats objected to the speed at which the process moved due to the timing ahead of the impending presidential election — a similar stance taken by Republicans in 2016 when they blocked the nomination Merrick Garland.
Barrett, a New Orleans native, becomes the third Supreme Court Justice nominated and confirmed during the Trump administration joining Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. The newest Justice graduated from Rhodes College in Memphis before attending Notre Dame Law School. She clerked for Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and for the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.
In 2002, she began teaching law at Notre Dame and was appointed to the Seventh Circuit in May 2017 by President Trump.
