Senate Confirms Amy Coney Barrett as Supreme Court Justice

The Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett as the new Supreme Court justice on Monday.

The candidate proposed by the president, Donald Trump, was validated by the Republican majority, thus reinforcing the conservative bias of the highest court (with six magistrates of this ideology compared to three progressives) in an unprecedented decision due to its proximity to the elections, and that it will set the course of the country for decades. 

After some reluctance was manifested among their ranks, Republicans

, with only eight days left until the presidential election. 

[This is Amy Coney Barrett, nominated by Trump for the Supreme Court: she is in favor of the public charge rule and against abortion]

Only Republican Senator Susan Collins, representative of Maine, had spoken out against confirming Barrett, considering it unfair so shortly before the presidential election, and this Monday she confirmed her disagreement by casting the only negative vote of her bench.

The session was not chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, who, according to the Constitution, has the role of President of the Senate.

Democrats opposed his presence in the Upper House, after five of his aides tested positive for coronavirus and did not consider his presence essential.

Pence tested negative for the coronavirus on Monday.

Members of Vice President Mike Pence's team test positive for coronavirus

Oct. 25, 202002: 26

Barrett's nomination was proposed by Trump following the death in September of progressive Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The appointment of the person who will replace her is considered a transcendental issue because the Supreme Court

and, as it is a life position, a new conservative judge (such as Barrett) will alter the balance ideological of the court for decades.

It is also

. 

The deadlines pushed by the president to replace Ginsburg have come under fire from his Democratic opponents, who have argued that Republicans must adhere to the principle they established when they refused to confirm Justice Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama, arguing that the presidential elections were too close.

Now, Democrats stress that millions of Americans have already voted in advance for the next election and that the winning candidate must wait for the candidate to nominate Ginsburg's replacement. 

But the president and his allies have followed through with their plan, convinced that appointing Barrett now would be a great victory in light of the elections and

.

During a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she was subjected to questions from Republicans and Democrats about her views on key issues and her plans as a judge, Barrett largely dodged questions about how her personal and judicial philosophies would affect her decisions on those issues. 

Trump's roadmap has perplexed some members of his own party, particularly those engaged in

on November 3 (along with the vote to elect the new president, Americans are also called upon to express their preference to renew a third of that chamber.) 

Susan Collins, for example, faces a close fight to regain her seat from the electors of Maine, the state she represents.

That appears to have influenced his decision to vote against Barrett's final confirmation.

"My vote does not reflect any conclusions I have reached about Judge Barrett's qualifications to serve," Collins said, "I do not think it is fair or consistent to have a Senate confirmation vote before the election." 

The White House will

this Monday night. 

This time, those attending the Rose Garden must wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, unlike Judge Barrett's first event at the official residence of the president, which was considered by medical experts as a hyper-spread event of COVID-19 that he was probably behind a wave of infections in the White House.

With information from NBC News