Monday was a historic day in Washington, D.C., as Judge Amy Coney Barrett was first confirmed by the Senate as an associate judge on the Supreme Court, and than late Monday Justice Clarence Thomas administered the constitutional oath to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement.

In her remarks during the ceremony, Barrett mentioned the need for a separation of powers between the judicial and legislative branches. “It is the job of a senator to pursue her policy preferences,” Barrett said on the South Lawn of the White House. “In fact, it would be a dereliction of duty for her to put policy goals aside. By contrast, it is the job of a judge to resist her policy preferences. It would be a dereliction of duty for her to give into them. Federal judges don’t stand for election. Thus, they have no basis for claiming that their preferences reflect those of the people.”

Barrett was confirmed by a 52-48 vote in the Senate earlier Monday. The Supreme Court has been a hot subject throughout the election, and Monday Joe Biden said he might be open to shifting the Supreme Court justices to lower courts if he’s elected president, telling a crowd in Chester, Pennsylvania “There is some literature among constitutional scholars about the possibility of going from one court to another court, not just always staying the whole time in the Supreme Court but I have made no judgment.”

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