U-S Senate confirms Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court, MNs split over vote

Minnesota Republicans are celebrating while Democrats predict dire consequences, after the U-S Senate on a party-line vote confirmed President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Democratic Senator Tina Smith warns it’s to fulfill the president’s repeated promise to appoint justices who would dismantle the Affordable Care Act and overturn Roe -v- Wade, both of which she says the American people overwhelmingly oppose. Smith says instead of dealing with COVID and economic hardship, Senate Republicans rammed through the nomination to help advance an agenda that threatens Americans’ rights and freedoms. A spokeswoman for Smith’s Republican challenger, Jason Lewis, says Smith “seems to misunderstand the role of the Supreme Court – she believes it should make laws whereas Congressman Lewis believes judges must apply law as written by legislators. The Lewis campaign says Barrett is “a superb jurist who will interpret the Constitution as it is written.”