Senator Leahy, speaking on the Judiciary Committee just now: “I have served in the Senate for 46 years, a span that includes 20 Supreme Court nominations and 16 confirmation hearings. None – not one – looked anything like this one.

“We should not have had a nomination before Justice Ginsburg was even buried, while the nation was mourning her passing. We should not be holding a hearing just 16 days later, when this Committee has afforded itself three times as long to vet other modern nominees.

“We should not be holding a hearing 3 weeks from an election, when millions of Americans have already voted. Not when doing so requires that 1/2 of the Senate go back on their word, contradicting every argument they made about the American people needing a voice.

“We should not be holding this hearing when it is plainly unsafe to do so…. Two members are just now emerging from quarantine. Other members have declined to get tested at all. Yet the Chairman has refused to implement a daily testing regime to keep [everyone] safe.

“The Senate should also not be holding this hearing while doing nothing to pass a desperately-needed COVID relief bill. Every senator on this Committee knows in her or his heart that this is wrong.

“With this vacancy, President Trump and Senate Republicans see the potential to wildly swing the balance of the Court and transform our independent courts into a far-right arm of the Republican Party.

Republicans see “the potential to accomplish through the courts what they have failed to accomplish in the halls of Congress. At the top of their hit list is the Affordable Care Act.

“Overturning the ACA has been the single most important policy objective of the Republican Party over the last decade. If Republicans are successful, the results will be nothing short of catastrophic for the millions of Americans who depend on its coverage and protections.

“I have heard from [Vermonters] — both often and loudly — since Justice Ginsburg’s passing. They are scared, Judge Barrett. They are scared that your confirmation would rip from them their most basic healthcare protections.

“They are scared that the clock will be turned back to a time when women had no right to control their own bodies…. They are scared [of] rolling back of voting rights, workers’ rights, and the rights of the LGBTQ community to equal treatment.

“These are the real life implications of decisions made by the Court. And a majority of Americans, like an overwhelming majority of Vermonters, do not support taking our country in that direction.

“Republicans first announced their intention to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat just one hour after the announcement of her death. From that moment this process has been nothing but shameful. Worse, it will almost certainly lead to disastrous consequences for Americans.

“Justice Ginsburg, I am certain, would have dissented. And I will, too — on behalf of Vermonters, on behalf of the integrity of the Senate, and on behalf of the majority of Americans who oppose this process.