Ed Markey: “I rise to speak in opposition to the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to serve as an Associate Justice on the U.S.…”

“I rise to speak in opposition to the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to serve as an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. This is no ordinary nomination, and it comes at no ordinary time in the life of our Nation. We are in the midst of a global pandemic that has already claimed more than 225,000 American lives. We are a mere 8 days away from a Presidential election. Donald Trump announced his nomination of Judge Barrett even before we could fully mourn the death of the great Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Senate Republicans then rushed this nomination to the Supreme Court. In doing so, they violated the rule that their leader, Mitch McConnell, imposed in 2016, which kept Merrick Garland off the Supreme Court after President Obama nominated him in February of that year to fill the vacancy that arose with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. That rule was clear. That rule was concise. That rule was definitive: The Senate would not consider a nomination to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court during a Presidential election year. Many of my Republican colleagues echoed Leader McConnell's pledge.…”