On September 18, 2020, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died — 46 days before the presidential election. Early voting had already begun in several states. Nearly 6 million Americans had already cast their ballots.

Four years earlier, McConnell had insisted that confirming a Supreme Court justice in a presidential election year would deny "the American people a voice." Now, with a Republican president and the election just weeks away, McConnell raced to confirm Amy Coney Barrett.

On October 26, 2020 — just 8 days before Election Day — Barrett was confirmed 52–48, cementing a 6–3 conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court. Not a single Democrat voted to confirm.

How It Harmed Americans:

The hypocrisy was not an abstract concern — it had real consequences. The Barrett confirmation delivered the decisive vote that, less than two years later, overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health. Without McConnell's maneuvering — blocking Garland to keep the seat open, eliminating the filibuster for Gorsuch, rushing Barrett through — the Court would not have had the majority to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion that had stood for 49 years.

McConnell's maneuvering also eliminated the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees (the "nuclear option"), meaning future nominations will be decided by simple majority rather than requiring the 60-vote supermajority that historically ensured some bipartisan consensus. The damage to the Court's legitimacy and the Senate's institutional norms is likely permanent.

Reference List:

• Nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, PN 2252, 116th Congress

• Congressional Research Service, "Supreme Court Nominations in Presidential Election Years"

• Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022)

• Senate Judiciary Committee, Barrett confirmation hearing records