华盛顿——就在总统选举前一周，参议院共和党人周日以压倒性多数投票，将最高法院提名人艾米·科尼·巴雷特推向最终确认，尽管民主党人反对。
巴雷特周一的确认几乎是毫无疑问的，大多数共和党人大多团结一致支持唐纳德·特朗普总统的选择。但民主党人准备让参议院开会到深夜，试图拖延时间，他们认为11月3日的选举获胜者应该选择被提名人来填补已故大法官鲁斯·巴德·金斯伯格留下的空缺。
共和党人对有机会在法庭上设立第三个特朗普法官感到兴奋，这将在未来几年锁定保守派的多数席位。巴雷特的崛起开启了一个关于堕胎、同性婚姻和平价医疗法案的潜在新时代。定于11月10日审理的反对奥巴马时代卫生法的案件。
“参议院正在做正确的事情，”参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔说，他发誓要在周一前让巴雷特出庭。
51比48的投票引发了30小时的参议院辩论。两位共和党人，阿拉斯加州的莉萨·穆尔科斯基和缅因州的苏珊·科林斯，投票反对提名，所有投票的民主党人都反对。副总统候选人加州参议员卡马拉·哈里斯(Kamala Harris)在密歇根州竞选时错过了投票。
副总统迈克·彭斯通常会主持即将到来的投票，但在一名亲密助手对新冠肺炎的测试呈阳性后，尚不清楚他是否会履行他在里程碑式的投票中的角色。
参议院民主党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)表示，特朗普政府在冠状病毒危机期间推动安装巴雷特(Barrett)表明，“共和党愿意忽视这一流行病，以推动这一提名人向前发展。”
这位保守派法官周六获得了穆尔科斯基的重要支持，穆尔科斯基是共和党中最后一个反对在白宫选举中填补席位的人之一，已经有5000多万人投票。
穆尔科斯基说，她不喜欢急于确认，但支持特朗普选择巴雷特担任高等法院法官。她表示将投票反对程序性步骤，但最终将与共和党同事一起确认巴雷特。“虽然我反对导致我们走到这一步的过程，但我并不反对她，”穆尔科斯基说。
现在，预计唯一投票反对巴雷特的共和党人是柯林斯，他在缅因州面临着激烈的连任。她说她不会在离选举这么近的时候投票给被提名人。
麦康奈尔，R-Ky。他注意到了政治上的敌意，但为自己对这一过程的处理进行了辩护。他对民主党关于法官保守资历的“恐怖故事”嗤之以鼻。
48岁的巴雷特以中立仲裁人的身份在参议院司法委员会公开作证，并一度暗示，“这不是艾米的法律。”但是巴雷特过去反对堕胎的文章和对“奥巴马医改”的裁决显示了一个非常保守的思想家。
委员会主席森说:“她是一个保守的女人，信奉自己的信仰，她毫不掩饰地支持生活，但她不会对我们所有人适用‘艾米法则’。”林赛·格雷厄姆周六晚些时候在福克斯电视台上说。
特朗普就任总统之初，麦康奈尔策划了参议院规则的改变，允许100名参议员中的大多数人确认，而不是传统上需要60票的门槛来推动高等法院提名人反对。以53-47的共和党多数，巴雷特的确认几乎是肯定的。
特朗普和他的共和党盟友在距离11月3日的选举如此之近的时候推动巴雷特升职，他们指望竞选活动得到推动，就像他们认为麦康奈尔在2016年2月拒绝允许参议院考虑巴拉克·奥巴马总统的提名一样，在保守派和福音派基督徒中为特朗普制造了兴奋，他们渴望共和党总统在安东宁·斯卡利亚法官去世后获得提名。
2017年，特朗普提名巴雷特为上诉法院院长时，她是圣母院法学院的教授。当时有两名民主党人加入进来确认她，但预计未来几天没有人会投票给她。
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美联社记者玛丽·克莱尔·贾洛尼克在华盛顿，梅格·金纳德在南卡罗来纳州哥伦比亚，贝基·博勒在阿拉斯加州朱诺报道。
Senate votes to advance Barrett; confirmation expected Mon
WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly Sunday to advance Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett toward final confirmation despite Democratic objections, just over a week before the presidential election.
Barrett's confirmation on Monday was hardly in doubt, with majority Republicans mostly united in support behind President Donald Trump's pick. But Democrats were poised to keep the Senate in session into the night in attempts to stall, arguing that the Nov. 3 election winner should choose the nominee to fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Republicans are excited by the chance to install a third Trump justice on the court, locking in a conservative majority for years to come. Barrett's ascent opens up a potential new era of rulings on abortion, gay marriage and the Affordable Care Act. A case against the Obama-era health law scheduled to be heard Nov. 10.
"The Senate is doing the right thing," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, vowing to install Barrett to the court by Monday.
The 51-48 vote launched 30 hours of Senate debate. Two Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, voted against advancing the nominee, and all Democrats who voted were opposed. California Sen. Kamala Harris, the vice presidential nominee, missed the vote while campaigning in Michigan.
Vice President Mike Pence would typically preside over the coming votes, but after a close aide tested positive for the COVID-19, it was unclear whether he will fulfill his role for the landmark vote.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the Trump administration's drive to install Barrett during the coronavirus crisis shows “the Republican Party is willing to ignore the pandemic in order to rush this nominee forward.”
The conservative judge picked up the crucial backing Saturday from Murkowski, one of the last GOP holdouts against filling the seat in the midst of a White House election and with more than 50 million people already having voted.
Murkowski said she disliked the rush toward confirmation, but supported Trump's choice of Barrett for the high court. She said would vote against the procedural steps, but ultimately join GOP colleagues in confirming Barrett. “While I oppose the process that has led us to this point, I do not hold it against her,” Murkowski said.
Now the only Republican expected to vote against Barrett is Collins, who faces a tight reelection in Maine. She has said she won’t vote for the nominee so close to the election.
McConnell, R-Ky., noted the political rancor, but defended his handling of the process. He scoffed at the Democrats' “horror stories” about the judge's conservative qualifications.
Barrett, 48, presented herself in public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a neutral arbiter and at one point suggested, “It's not the law of Amy.” But Barrett's past writings against abortion and a ruling on “Obamacare” show a deeply conservative thinker.
“She’s a conservative woman who embraces her faith, she’s unabashedly pro-life but she’s not going to apply ‘the law of Amy’ to all of us,” said the committee chairman, Sen.Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said late Saturday on Fox.
At the start of Trump's presidency, McConnell engineered a Senate rules change to allow confirmation by a majority of the 100 senators, rather than the 60-vote threshold traditionally needed to advance high court nominees over objections. With a 53-47 GOP majority, Barrett’s confirmation is almost certain.
By pushing for Barrett's ascension so close to the Nov. 3 election, Trump and his Republican allies are counting on a campaign boost, in much the way they believe McConnell's refusal to allow the Senate to consider President Barack Obama's nominee in February 2016 created excitement for Trump among conservatives and evangelical Christians eager for the Republican president to make that nomination after Justice Antonin Scalia's death.
Barrett was a professor at Notre Dame Law School when she was tapped by Trump in 2017 for an appeals court opening. Two Democrats joined at that time to confirm her, but none is expected to vote for her in the days ahead.
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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska contributed to this report.
