On October 26, 2020, Amy Coney Barrett was appointed to the Supreme Court.

The move was marred by controversy, as the confirmation process took place less than two weeks before the presidential election. Many Republicans argue that President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell carried out their Constitutional duty to nominate and confirm a justice, while Democrats say that the decision to push a confirmation this close to an election is unfair to the American people. 

I agree with the latter category. Full disclosure: I do not support Donald Trump and I do not believe that he should have the power to put Amy Coney Barrett on the bench. 

While I wouldn’t be able to argue against the previous Supreme Court confirmations made in President Trump’s tenure, this support of Justice Barrett by Republicans was a complete contradiction of their stance on filling the vacancy following Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February 2016.

Even before President Obama could make his nomination for potential justice Merrick Garland, McConnell announced that any confirmation of a judge would be void as 2016 was an election year. It “wasn’t fair” that a justice could be appointed to the court by a Democratic president when a Republican president could be elected just eight months later. Now here we are in 2020 in this exact same dilemma, except we have a Republican president, a Republican majority in the Senate, and less than two weeks until we choose our next president.

If Merrick Garland could not be confirmed to the Supreme Court eight months before an election, there is absolutely no reason that President Trump and Senate Majority Leader McConnell should have been able to appoint Justice Barrett to the court within less than two weeks until the election. Thousands of Americans have already cast their ballots in early and mail-in voting and likely many of them are Democrats. This is pure speculation, yet one could argue the president’s criticism of mail-in voting is an attempt to delegitimize potential high Democratic voting turnout. This is hypocrisy in its truest form.

To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what to expect from this new Supreme Court and I am scared. Amy Coney Barrett is sitting on the Supreme Court. Justice Barrett’s stances (or lack thereof) on key issues like the Affordable Care Act and climate change are at odds with my own beliefs and those of millions of Americans. Her appointment could shift the rulings of the Court for decades to come and most people won’t have the luxury of waiting that long to see a change.