Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Unit­ed States Sen­a­tors vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Octo­ber 30th.

In the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

CONFIRMING AMY CONEY BARRETT: Vot­ing 52 for and 48 against, the Sen­ate on Octo­ber 26th con­firmed Amy Coney Bar­rett, 48, as an asso­ciate jus­tice of the Supreme Court, replac­ing the late Ruth Bad­er Ginsburg.

She had been a fed­er­al appeals judge since 2018 and Uni­ver­si­ty of Notre Dame law pro­fes­sor start­ing in 2002.

Repub­li­cans said Bar­rett is a bril­liant jurist and per­son of faith who would respect con­sti­tu­tion­al word­ing and the bound­aries of set­tled law in her rulings.

Democ­rats called her a threat to estab­lished law in areas includ­ing abor­tion rights, health care, minori­ties’ bal­lot access and LGBTQ rights.

Democ­rats mocked Repub­li­cans for rush­ing Bar­rett onto the court days before a pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, after hav­ing side­lined for­mer Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma’s nom­i­na­tion of Mer­rick Gar­land to the court for near­ly nine months in 2016 on grounds it was a pres­i­den­tial elec­tion year.

John Thune, R‑South Dako­ta, said: “Judge Bar­rett brings a clear under­stand­ing of the prop­er role of a judge. She under­stands that the job of a judge is to inter­pret the law, not make the law… or, as [she] said in an answer to a sen­a­tor’s ques­tion, ‘I apply the law. I fol­low the law. You make the pol­i­cy.’ As [she] made clear in her hear­ing, she will be the kind of jus­tice who leaves her per­son­al beliefs and polit­i­cal opin­ions at the court­room door.”

Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑New York, said: “Con­firm­ing a life­time appoint­ment this late into a pres­i­den­tial elec­tion sea­son is out­ra­geous. It is even more galling, of course, because [Repub­li­cans] refused to even con­sid­er the Supreme Court nom­i­na­tion of a Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­dent on the grounds of the principle…that we should wait until after the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion because the Amer­i­can peo­ple deserved a voice in the selec­tion of their next justice.”

A yes vote was to con­firm Bar­rett as the 115th jus­tice of the Supreme Court.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

HOLDING BARRETT VOTE BEFORE ELECTION: Vot­ing 53 for and 46 against, the Sen­ate on Octo­ber 25th blocked a Demo­c­ra­t­ic motion for adjourn­ment until after Novem­ber 3rd so that the Amy Coney Bar­rett con­fir­ma­tion vote would not occur before Amer­i­cans have cho­sen their next president.

Don­ald Trump announced the nom­i­na­tion on Sep­tem­ber 26th and the Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee sent it to the full cham­ber on Octo­ber 22nd. A yes vote was to put Bar­rett on the court before results are known from the pres­i­den­tial election.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

LWIC will be on hiatus next Sunday

Con­gress will be in recess this week due to the end of vot­ing in the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. It is expect­ed to recon­vene on Novem­ber 9th.

Edi­tor’s Note: The infor­ma­tion in NPI’s week­ly How Cas­ca­di­a’s U.S. law­mak­ers vot­ed fea­ture is pro­vid­ed by Votera­ma in Con­gress, a ser­vice of Thomas Vot­ing Reports. All rights are reserved. Repro­duc­tion of this post is not per­mit­ted, not even with attri­bu­tion. Use the per­ma­nent link to this post to share it… thanks!

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