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If Sen. Chris Coons’ (D-DE) recent remarks regarding the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett are any indication, the Democrats are using the “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” strategy to stop her from replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The senator gave a myriad of reasons why he believes the judge should not be appointed to the highest court in the land. But it appears that his arguments are nothing more than desperate posturing. 

In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Coons laid out a series of complaints against Barrett’s nomination. First, he went after the judge’s views on the Affordable Care Act, calling them “disqualifying.” He said, “I’m going to be laying out the ways in which Judge Barrett’s views, her views on reaching back and reconsidering and overturning long-settled precedent are not just extreme they’re disqualifying,” 

He continued, insisting that Barrett “has views that make her not qualified,” and pointing out that “President Trump has said he would only nominate someone who would overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA), taking away health care protections for 100 million Americans” as the nation is still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The senator referred to Barrett’s criticism of Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision to uphold the ACA in 2012. He indicated that he had spoken with constituents who thought that the healthcare legislation was settled law and opined that “this is hard for your average American to follow.” He added, “This is their last desperate measure to jam someone onto the court to accomplish that goal by Supreme Court decision what they couldn’t accomplish by legislative action in the Congress.”

Then, he argued that the Senate should delay the hearings due to concerns over the coronavirus. “We shouldn’t be having this committee [hearing] with two members of the committee infected with COVID,” he insisted. He was referring to  Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) who recently announced that they had tested positive for the virus. 

But the senator didn’t stop there. He also attempted to change the definition of the term “court-packing.” Former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) have received criticism for avoiding questions regarding their stance court-packing, which means adding seats to the Supreme Court so that you can add additional judges that will impose the president’s agenda from the bench. 

During the interview, Coons argued that moving forward with Barreett’s confirmation somehow “constitutes court-packing.” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) shot back, debunking Coons’ assertion and pointing out that Coons was using “Orwellian” language. “Claiming that court-packing is filling open vacancies that obviously isn’t what court-packing means,” he retorted.

Sasse continued, insisting that “what they’re really talking about is the suicide bombing two branches of government.” He noted that if Democrats gained control of the Senate, they would have to do away with the filibuster in order to add seats to the Supreme Court.  

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