Fox News is reporting that the Senate Judiciary Committee will meet again this Thursday, Oct. 22 “to consider” Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court a week after committee Democrats tried everything they could to make the judge commit to how she might decide cases, all to no avail.
Judge Barrett would succeed liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month following a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Barrett, by all accounts, is the opposite of Ginsburg, in that she is a constitutional originalist, where Ginsburg is considered by many to have been an activist.
A recent Rasmussen Survey found that 68 percent of Americans believe it is “very likely” that Judge Barrett will be confirmed to fill the high court vacancy. Through all of last week’s hearings, Barrett maintain a calm, polite demeanor as members of her family sat silently, even while she was questioned as to whether she had ever tried to elicit sexual favors from anyone. The question came from Hawaii Democrat Sen. Mazie Hirono, who read it from what appeared to be a prepared list. It may have been the low point of the hearings.
According to the Rasmussen telephone survey, 51 percent of “likely voters” think the Senate should confirm Barrett, while a whopping 88 percent think confirmation is likely. That includes the 68 percent who believe it is “very likely.”
Of course, as noted by Rasmussen, there’s a philosophical and political divide across the landscape.
“Eighty-two percent (82%) of Republicans say the Senate should confirm Barrett, a view shared by 29% of Democrats. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Democratic voters disagree. Voters not affiliated with either major party are evenly divided,” Rasmussen reported.
According to an article at America’s 1st Freedom website written by Amy Swearer, a legal fellow at the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, Judge Barrett’s “originalist” brand has gun prohibitionists fearful of what could be on the horizon.
An “originalist” understands “the words of the Second Amendment had a specific meaning at the time they were ratified, and that meaning doesn’t change according to a judge’s arbitrary whims,” Swearer observed.
Judge Barrett is President Trump’s third nomination to the nation’s high court. She was preceded by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Monday, Rasmussen’s daily presidential tracking poll showed 48 percent of likely voters approve of the president’s job performance while 50 percent disapprove. The latest data shows 39 percent who “strongly approve” of the president’s job performance.
Another Rasmussen survey had a startling result. Sixty-one percent of likely voters “now think the impact on politics of social media like Facebook and Twitter has been bad for the nation. Only seven percent think social media is good for the nation’s politics, and 28 percent are neutral.
Democrats, according to Rasmussen, “are heavier users of social media like Facebook and Twitter than Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party.”
“But roughly 60% of all three are in general agreement that social media has been bad for politics in America,” the Rasmussen poll found.
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