One week before an election where he still does not appear in a favorable position, Donald Trump did not shy away from his pleasure, Monday, October 26, in the evening. Returning from three meetings held in Pennsylvania, he organized at the White House the swearing in of Amy Coney Barrett, officially appointed to the Supreme Court by a vote of the Senate (52 votes in favor, 48 against) shortly before, saluting “A historic day for America”. The arrival of the conservative judge within this institution offers the American president a victory which, whatever the result of the November 3 ballot, will have effects well beyond his mandate.
Appointed for life, the 48-year-old Catholic jurist joins five of her Conservative colleagues – two of whom were chosen by Mr. Trump, making him the most influential president on the Supreme Court for forty years – and three liberal judges . Its presence anchors for many years this institution, theoretically central for the balance of power in the United States, in the defense of the values of the American right.
It confirms, beyond all expectations, the success of the American president in keeping one of his campaign promises of 2016. He then pledged to his religious electorate to furnish the Supreme Court and the courts with conservative judges . During his tenure, he installed more than 200 magistrates across the country, a record likely to have a lasting influence on the country’s judicial system and societal developments.
But this rapid appointment also underlines the extreme politicization of the process of appointing judges to the Supreme Court. Amy Coney Barrett is the first since 1869 not to have obtained a single vote from the opposing party. With the sole support of Republican senators, his appointment joins that, controversial, of his colleague Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 (50 votes, including a Democrat, against 48) and to a lesser extent that of Neil Gorsuch (54-45).
Dodge strategy
Levels of approval beyond measure with the plebiscite obtained by the judge who will replace Amy Coney Barrett, proposed in 1993 by Democrat Bill Clinton. Ruth Bader Ginsburg obtained 96 votes out of 100. The same unanimity greeted the arrival of the conservative Anthony Kennedy, appointed by George Bush in 1987 (97 votes). More recently, the two candidates of Barack Obama, in 2009 and in 2010, had again been dubbed by more than two thirds of the senators.
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