Supreme court battle latest issue in chaotic US election

Ramin Mazaheri 
Press TV, Chicago

US President Donald Trump has nominated conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. 

Republicans have locked up enough support to proceed with the confirmation process, leaving Democrats angry and essentially helpless. Coney would replace liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and would give conservatives a decisive 6 to 3 advantage, but the court hasn’t seen a liberal majority since 1971.

It’s yet another latest highly-polarizing event in an election year which was already troubled by the coronavirus lockdown, the resulting economic catastrophe, the historically popular Black Lives Matter movement and repeated instances of violent street rebellion and looting.

A sizable 11% of voters say that the Supreme Court’s composition is their single most important issue. A final vote is expected on October 22. Polls show around 60% of America favor delaying the nomination process until after the election.

However, both mainstream parties have repeatedly indicated they could contest November’s results, and there is no constitutional mechanism that would solve the total chaos which would be created by a Supreme Court which produced a deadlocked 4 to 4 vote on a presidential election lawsuit.

Analysts say the court suffers from major diversity issues: Coney would give the court a sixth Catholic member, even though Catholics only comprise 22% of the population. Two justices are Jewish, even though Jews are just 2% of the population. Over half the court hails from either New York or Washington DC, and only three current justices were nominated by a Democratic president.

Democrats have discussed trying to increase the size of Supreme Court in order to pack in more liberal voices, but polls say such a move is opposed by almost a 2 to 1 margin.

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