“It really is a potential baptism by fire.”
Newly confirmed conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett faces a barrage of politically fraught cases in her first days on the job, as the court weighs election disputes and prepares to hear a challenge to the Obamacare health law. The Republican-controlled Senate on Monday pushed through the confirmation over Democrats’ objections to an appointment so close to the Nov.3 presidential election. President Donald Trump, who nominated Barrett, has said he expects the court to ultimately decide the result of the election between him and Democrat Joe Biden. Barrett,48, who will be formally sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday, joins the court with two election issues already awaiting her from key battleground states North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The court would be expected to act on both before Election Day, with Barrett, previously an appeals court judge and legal scholar as part of the court’s new 6-3 conservative majority. No Supreme Court justice had ever been confirmed so close to a presidential election. “I cannot think of any other situation like this,” said Rick Hasen, an expert on election law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. “It really is a potential baptism by fire.” One week after the election, the court on Nov.10 hears a case in which Republicans including Trump are asking the court to strike down the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. During Barrett’s Senate confirmation hearing two weeks ago, Democrats focused on both Obamacare and election cases in voicing opposition to her confirmation and urged her to step aside from both.
