Courts

Amy Coney Barrett Nomination Turns Into White-Hot Raging COVID Spigot

So that ACB unveiling party doesn't look all that smart, does it?

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(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The catchphrase of the latter days of the Nixon administration was “what did the president know, and when did he know it?” Today, America is asking “what did the president breathe and when did he breathe it?”

America’s chief executive, who has consistently denigrated the use of masks during the pandemic has now presented the country with an exercise in high-stakes contact tracing. Did Trump contract the illness from senior advisor Hope Hicks? RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel? How often were all these people getting their “routine” tests? Were they infected at the debate where Republican guests refused to wear masks? Remember a bunch of these people decided to be a part of this picture over the weekend:

https://twitter.com/markgongloff/status/1312075531001757696

Why is the Notre Dame president circled? Well, because he just tested positive too!

Now, the Cleveland Clinic reports that the candidates both tested negative before the start of the debate, meaning Trump personally did not have the virus over the weekend when he brought out Amy Coney Barrett and blew up his own political future. But that doesn’t mean someone in Trump’s inner circle didn’t already have it or that someone in that sea of faces isn’t responsible for bringing it into the White House.

Judge Barrett has already had COVID, but one guy who was at that event and was seen hugging people without a mask on was Senator Mike Lee, who has now tested positive for the virus. He also went ahead and met with ACB on Tuesday where they glad-handed with Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Mike Crapo, Cory Gardner, Rick Scott, Ted Cruz, John Thune, and Chuck Grassley (third in the line of succession!). One presumes Lee has continued to meet with these folks and others all week as the Judiciary Committee Republicans work overtime to ensure the Voting Rights Act doesn’t exist by this time next year.

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Lee has already spouted off that he wants to go forward with the hearings despite having a highly contagious disease that’s killed 200K Americans because it’s a small price to pay for exhausting Donald Trump’s political usefulness to the Republican Party.

The fact of the matter is that all of these people — including Judge Coney Barrett who may still be a carrier even if she has immunity — need to quarantine now. If that slows down the nomination process, there’s plenty of time during the lame duck session for them to complete the hijacking of constitutional order that they began by refusing to vote on Merrick Garland. If there aren’t any rules anyway, why not? There’s still a 5-3 conservative majority on the Court to squelch any close election issues so that doesn’t apply any additional pressure.

One thing’s for sure: we’re watching the “least dangerous branch” wreak absolute havoc on the other two right now.

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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