On Saturday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK, pictured left) announced that she would vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett's (pictured right) nomination to the Supreme Court to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, despite her previous statements that she does not support the president filling a vacancy on the high court so close to an election. "While I oppose the process that has led us to this point," Murkowski stated in a Senate floor speech explaining her decision, "I do not hold it against her as an individual who has navigated the gauntlet with grace, skill and humility."
Besides the argument that it is too close to the election for the Senate to vote for a lifetime Supreme Court nominee, a common argument against Barrett's confirmation from Senate Democrats has been that it could be the final nail in the coffin for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which the Trump administration is currently arguing in court is unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case on November 10, exactly a week after Election Day. In spite of Barrett's claim during her confirmation hearings to "have no hostility to the ACA,” she has criticized Chief Justice John Roberts for siding with the court's more liberal wing in 2012 to uphold the law, as has President Trump, who, according to CNN Supreme Court reporter Ariane de Vogue, has "[emphasized] the need to add more conservatives to the bench." Given the possibility that Barrett would vote to overturn the ACA, kicking 20 million Americans off of their health insurance in the middle of a pandemic, and that Murkowski has voted previously, including just earlier this month, against repealing the law, why would she come out in favor of the nomination, in spite of her prior statements?
According to a Center for Public Accountability report released in July, "[public] companies and their trade associations have contributed generously to the Republican Attorneys General Association [RAGA], which supported the election of the attorneys general who brought suit to strike down the Affordable Care Act." Among the top 25 companies and trade associations the center lists as having contributed to the RAGA in 2018, Murkowski took $77,500 in PAC money from 15 of them during her most recent Senate re-election campaign in 2016. Below is a list of how much she took from each organization (the amount they gave to the RAGA in 2018 is listed in parentheses):
While the report acknowledges that these companies and associations "may not have believed that their political donations could one day help threaten the denial of health care access for millions," they maintain, "[if] the Affordable Care Act is dismantled, these companies will share responsibility for this denial."
On Sunday, the Senate voted 51-48 to invoke cloture, or to end debate, on Barrett's nomination, with Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) being the only Republicans to break ranks with their party and vote against cloture. Unlike Murkowski however, Collins, who is seen as vulnerable in her ongoing battle for re-election, has maintained her opposition to confirming a justice with so little time before the election. A final vote on Barrett's confirmation is expected Monday.
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