Big news out of Washington:
The Senate confirmed a Notre Dame law professor to a Chicago-based federal appeals court Tuesday court despite widespread criticism from advocacy groups.
Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Tim Kaine (Va.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.) joined Republicans in the 55-43 vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Barrett has claimed that ObamaCare’s birth-control mandate is “a grave violation of religious freedom” and questioned the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Civil rights groups were quick to slam the Senate for approving the Trump pick’s nomination.
“Today’s vote continues the Senate Republicans’ record of rubber stamping all of President Trump’s judicial nominees,” Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in a statement.
At her confirmation hearing, Barrett denied that she would put her religious beliefs above the law.
She got a lot of attention several weeks back when Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein noted Barrett’s religion and remarked, critically, “the dogma lives loudly with in you”:
The Democrat senator from California, Dianne Feinstein, attacked Barrett, a Catholic law professor at Notre Dame, with the accusation that she is essentially unfit for service as a federal judge because of her deeply held religious beliefs. “You are controversial,” Feinstein declared. “You have a long history of believing that your religious beliefs should prevail.” The Senator then added what has already become one of the most incendiary and widely repeated comments in recent memory: “When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you,” Feinstein said. “And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for years in this country.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRwEAhWn5B8
That exchange turned Barrett into a Catholic heroine—and spawned a new industry of mugs, tee shirts, bumper stickers and Internet memes:
