theguardian--2020-09-25--Trump makes 'law-and-order' pitch – but his rhetoric is at odds with reality

In the empty gym of a community center in Brownsville , Brooklyn , a small group of local residents in hunter green polo shirts and jackets read out some numbers .
“ Three days , no shootings .
Three hundred and 10 days , no killings.
” And on it went , around the room .
In this part of New York City , a day without a gun death isn ’ t taken for granted .
Brownsville and its surrounding neighborhoods have long been plagued by gang violence , gun deaths and police brutality .
And like most other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statistics , especially homicides and assaults , have been increasing this summer – with murder up by 50 % in the city this year , the highest it ’ s been since 2014 .
Those sitting in the gym that day , a community anti-violence street team with the non-profit ManUp Inc , know this intimately .
They spend their days meeting with people in their catchment areas , meeting neighbors and trying to mediate conflict .
But they said what they experience every day feels far removed from the narrative being espoused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent weeks has blamed every issue of increasing violence on Democratic leadership and protests against police brutality .
This week , his justice department even released a list of cities it deemed “ anarchist jurisdictions ” – a list which includes New York , Portland and Seattle .
As many experts have pointed out , these claims are baseless : big American cities are largely run by Democrats , with only few under Republican leadership , making comparisons almost impossible , and the increase in crime has hit Republican areas too .
Meanwhile @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protests have been peaceful .
But Trump ’ s “ law-and-order ” narrative is now successfully deepening political fissures in the country , without addressing the actual issue of community violence at time of a pandemic which has cost 200,000 American lives , an economic collapse that has killed millions of jobs and widespread civic unrest .
“ Folks have been losing a lot – jobs , housing , their loved ones , ” said AT Mitchell , the founder of ManUp .
“ You ’ re going to see a lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Dems .
But we ’ ve been unable to properly grieve.
” Crime in US cities has been steadily trending down in recent decades , even with prevalent mass shootings and gun violence .
This year , however , is an anomaly .
At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic , as cities such as New York and Chicago went under various types of lockdown , certain types of crime – murder and burglary – dropped precipitously .
Then , as the summer started , things changed .
“ What we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of communities under significant stress related to Covid and the economy .
Stress causes violence to get worse , ” said Charles Ransford , the director of policy and science at Cure Violence , an international anti-violence organization which has been credited with driving down gun violence in Chicago by more than 30 % in 2008 by treating is as a disease .
In a report of 27 large cities in the US , researchers found that aggravated assault rose by 35 % , homicides by 37 % , and commercial burglaries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and June , and then a quick drop right after .
This applied to Democrat- and Republican-led cities , such as Jacksonville , Florida , Fort Worth , Texas , and Lexington , Kentucky .
Richard Rosenfeld , the lead author of the report , said the pandemic was at the center of the increase in violence .
The virus has affected every segment of society , he said , including police forces , many of which have changed the way they carry out their work because of social distancing or quarantine .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the public , you will get some increase in crime , ” he said .
That goes for red and blue cities alike , which Rosenfeld said utilize law enforcement largely the same way .
But there are also some more reliable criminological factors that apply even outside a pandemic year .
For one , homicide rates almost almost go up during the summer , and this summer had the added phenomena of people leaving their homes after being cooped up for months .
“ There ’ s no refuge , there ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people are stuck at home , said Shnequa “ Coco ” Purvis , one of the community outreach workers with ManUp , whose sister was killed by a stray bullet in her Bed-Stuy neighborhood some years ago .
She blamed “ boredom and isolation ” for the violence in her own community , adding that some people living in unstable home situations , or with abusive family members .
Crime almost always increases when more people are interacting , which happens when the weather warms up , or when more people are together @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bars , and , this year , the hundreds of protests that broke out after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis .
“ In the past patterns in crime , when you have people interacting more , especially those communities more prone to acting out aggressively , you will get more crime , ” said Sherry Towers , a statistician who studies and computes criminological data .
But Towers emphasized that there was no political difference in the cities experiencing more crime for these reasons .
In fact , she said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most dangerous , such as Chicago , don ’ t hold up when the data is broken down per capita .
“ All of these cities that are painted as needing the national guard – they aren ’ t in the top 10 [ most dangerous ] by far , ” she said .
“ When you look at the most dangerous , you ’ re seeing a mix of cities that are blue and also red.
” Towers cited Memphis , Kansas City and Indianapolis as examples .
The surging misinformation around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an important part of the debate around law and order this summer .
Towers and Rosenfeld pointed out that the “ George Floyd ” effect of protests in cities likely led to more violence there .
But not because the protests themselves were violent or because , as Republicans have speculated , that police can not do their jobs amid the civil unrest .
In fact , the same conversation happened after the protests in Ferguson , Missouri in 2014 , when Michael Brown was shot by police .
Many speculated that an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few hundred miles away , after the Ferguson protests was because activists and citizens had obstructed the police department or because more people felt free to loot or vandalize .
Later , criminologists found the real reason .
“ There was no merit in that , ” Towers said .
“ But around the same time guns were flying off the shelves .
And even if people had no intent of using those guns for crime , these guns end up on the black market.
” This year saw a similar surge in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic .
And while criminologists don ’ t yet know the impact of those sales , Rosenfeld characterized them as a “ major contributor ” to this year ’ s crime .
“ The more firearms there are circulating in a population , the easier it is for someone to get their hands on a gun that shouldn ’ t have one , ” he said .
The George Floyd effect , instead , is simply that more people are interacting as a whole .
And as Towers had pointed out , more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said the calls for defunding the police – the same calls that the Trump administration blames for “ anarchy ” in cities like Portland – play a role in the violence as well , but not because of cutting budgets .
In Black communities that have a historically poor relationship with law enforcement , the protests have highlighted old wounds and led people to take matters into their own hands more often .
“ What you get in some communities is an even greater alienation between members and the local police department , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ creates a void – and a void can be filled by street justice.
” Police departments across the country have also changed their behavior in light of the protests .
As ProPublica found , some departments , including the New York Police Department pulled back after the protests , either to avoid scrutiny , or to intentionally underpolice .
That can further fracture the relationship with a community if done without cooperation , but it doesn ’ t always cause a steep increase in crime .
“ It ’ s obvious that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public outcry and their response has been slower , lax and they don ’ t seem to rush to aid , ” said Mitchell , whose organization is based in the same neighborhood where he grew up .
But Mitchell also sees room for building out the Cure Violence model through organization in that absence .
“ I ’ m a very strong advocate of community empowerment .
We had to step up our presence , ” he said .
Meanwhile , Rosenfeld said the cities that invest more in police reform are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ longterm .
“ The idea is that if people have confidence and trust in the police , then the police be effective and fair , ” he said .
“ The main argument is one of strengthening the accountability of police for misconduct .
“ The other is seriously thinking what it is we need or want , and if other agencies could handle some of the policing better.
” As Coco Purvis got ready for her shift after the meeting in the gym , she said the phrases “ violent , anarchist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ police ” meant little to her .
She said she and most of her neighbors “ want Trump out ” .
But what matters to her , she said , was the set of numbers she said in the group briefing .
How many of her neighbors had been shot ?
How many had been lost ?
“ It made me focus on the real , ” she said .
“ Life , it ’ s not about revenge , it ’ s about coming together as a community and fixing where we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her 28-year-old sister , and the son she left behind , that Purvis raised as her own , keep her committed .
Because in the pandemic , she said it ’ s clearer than ever that her community can be easily separated , isolated and torn apart if people like her don ’ t act .
“ My life and my story coincide with what happens and what ’ s going on right now , ” she said .
“ It all fits together .
”

In the empty gym of a community center in Brownsville, Brooklyn, a small group of local residents in hunter green polo shirts and jackets read out some numbers.
“Sixty-four days, no shootings. Nineteen days, no killings.”
“Three days, no shootings. Three hundred and 10 days, no killings.”
And on it went, around the room.
In this part of New York City, a day without a gun death isn’t taken for granted. Brownsville and its surrounding neighborhoods have long been plagued by gang violence, gun deaths and police brutality. And like most other cities in the country, some crime statistics, especially homicides and assaults, have been increasing this summer – with murder up by 50% in the city this year, the highest it’s been since 2014.
Those sitting in the gym that day, a community anti-violence street team with the non-profit ManUp Inc, know this intimately. They spend their days meeting with people in their catchment areas, meeting neighbors and trying to mediate conflict.
But they said what they experience every day feels far removed from the narrative being espoused by Donald Trump, who, in recent weeks has blamed every issue of increasing violence on Democratic leadership and protests against police brutality. This week, his justice department even released a list of cities it deemed “anarchist jurisdictions” – a list which includes New York, Portland and Seattle.
As many experts have pointed out, these claims are baseless: big American cities are largely run by Democrats, with only few under Republican leadership, making comparisons almost impossible, and the increase in crime has hit Republican areas too. Meanwhile, the large majority of the anti-racism protests have been peaceful.
But Trump’s “law-and-order” narrative is now successfully deepening political fissures in the country, without addressing the actual issue of community violence at time of a pandemic which has cost 200,000 American lives, an economic collapse that has killed millions of jobs and widespread civic unrest.
“Folks have been losing a lot – jobs, housing, their loved ones,” said AT Mitchell, the founder of ManUp. “You’re going to see a lot of rhetoric and hype between the GOP and the Dems. But we’ve been unable to properly grieve.”
Crime in US cities has been steadily trending down in recent decades, even with prevalent mass shootings and gun violence. This year, however, is an anomaly. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, as cities such as New York and Chicago went under various types of lockdown, certain types of crime – murder and burglary – dropped precipitously.
A worker grasps a piece of wood for a project in a church in Brownsville. Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Then, as the summer started, things changed.
“What we’re seeing in the US is a lot of communities under significant stress related to Covid and the economy. Stress causes violence to get worse,” said Charles Ransford, the director of policy and science at Cure Violence, an international anti-violence organization which has been credited with driving down gun violence in Chicago by more than 30% in 2008 by treating is as a disease.
In a report of 27 large cities in the US, researchers found that aggravated assault rose by 35%, homicides by 37%, and commercial burglaries saw a 200% spike in May and June, and then a quick drop right after. This applied to Democrat- and Republican-led cities, such as Jacksonville, Florida, Fort Worth, Texas, and Lexington, Kentucky.
Richard Rosenfeld, the lead author of the report, said the pandemic was at the center of the increase in violence. The virus has affected every segment of society, he said, including police forces, many of which have changed the way they carry out their work because of social distancing or quarantine. “If you reduce police contact with the public, you will get some increase in crime,” he said. That goes for red and blue cities alike, which Rosenfeld said utilize law enforcement largely the same way.
But there are also some more reliable criminological factors that apply even outside a pandemic year. For one, homicide rates almost almost go up during the summer, and this summer had the added phenomena of people leaving their homes after being cooped up for months.
“There’s no refuge, there’s no way out,” when people are stuck at home, said Shnequa “Coco” Purvis, one of the community outreach workers with ManUp, whose sister was killed by a stray bullet in her Bed-Stuy neighborhood some years ago. She blamed “boredom and isolation” for the violence in her own community, adding that some people living in unstable home situations, or with abusive family members.
Shnequa “Coco” Purvis, whose sister died of gun violence. Photograph: Ankita Rao
Crime almost always increases when more people are interacting, which happens when the weather warms up, or when more people are together at gatherings such concerts, parades, bars, and, this year, the hundreds of protests that broke out after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis.
“In the past patterns in crime, when you have people interacting more, especially those communities more prone to acting out aggressively, you will get more crime,” said Sherry Towers, a statistician who studies and computes criminological data.
But Towers emphasized that there was no political difference in the cities experiencing more crime for these reasons. In fact, she said, the cities often thought of as most dangerous, such as Chicago, don’t hold up when the data is broken down per capita.
“All of these cities that are painted as needing the national guard – they aren’t in the top 10 [most dangerous] by far,” she said. “When you look at the most dangerous, you’re seeing a mix of cities that are blue and also red.” Towers cited Memphis, Kansas City and Indianapolis as examples.
The surging misinformation around the relationship between protests and crime is an important part of the debate around law and order this summer.
Towers and Rosenfeld pointed out that the “George Floyd” effect of protests in cities likely led to more violence there. But not because the protests themselves were violent or because, as Republicans have speculated, that police cannot do their jobs amid the civil unrest.
In fact, the same conversation happened after the protests in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, when Michael Brown was shot by police. Many speculated that an increase in crime in Chicago, a few hundred miles away, after the Ferguson protests was because activists and citizens had obstructed the police department or because more people felt free to loot or vandalize.
Later, criminologists found the real reason. “There was no merit in that,” Towers said. “But around the same time guns were flying off the shelves. And even if people had no intent of using those guns for crime, these guns end up on the black market.” This year saw a similar surge in firearm sales, starting early in the pandemic. And while criminologists don’t yet know the impact of those sales, Rosenfeld characterized them as a “major contributor” to this year’s crime.
“The more firearms there are circulating in a population, the easier it is for someone to get their hands on a gun that shouldn’t have one,” he said. The George Floyd effect, instead, is simply that more people are interacting as a whole. And as Towers had pointed out, more interaction leads to more crime.
Rosenfeld said the calls for defunding the police – the same calls that the Trump administration blames for “anarchy” in cities like Portland – play a role in the violence as well, but not because of cutting budgets. In Black communities that have a historically poor relationship with law enforcement, the protests have highlighted old wounds and led people to take matters into their own hands more often.
Police patrol officers in Brooklyn. Photograph: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post/Getty Images
“What you get in some communities is an even greater alienation between members and the local police department,” he said. “And that creates a void – and a void can be filled by street justice.”
Police departments across the country have also changed their behavior in light of the protests. As ProPublica found, some departments, including the New York Police Department pulled back after the protests, either to avoid scrutiny, or to intentionally underpolice. That can further fracture the relationship with a community if done without cooperation, but it doesn’t always cause a steep increase in crime.
“It’s obvious that the NYPD have taken a position against the public outcry and their response has been slower, lax and they don’t seem to rush to aid,” said Mitchell, whose organization is based in the same neighborhood where he grew up. But Mitchell also sees room for building out the Cure Violence model through organization in that absence. “I’m a very strong advocate of community empowerment. We had to step up our presence,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rosenfeld said the cities that invest more in police reform are more likely to see drops in crime longterm. “The idea is that if people have confidence and trust in the police, then the police be effective and fair,” he said. “The main argument is one of strengthening the accountability of police for misconduct.
“The other is seriously thinking what it is we need or want, and if other agencies could handle some of the policing better.”
As Coco Purvis got ready for her shift after the meeting in the gym, she said the phrases “violent, anarchist Democratic cities” and “defund the police” meant little to her. She said she and most of her neighbors “want Trump out”. But what matters to her, she said, was the set of numbers she said in the group briefing. How many of her neighbors had been shot? How many had been lost?
“It made me focus on the real,” she said. “Life, it’s not about revenge, it’s about coming together as a community and fixing where we messed up.”
And the memory of her 28-year-old sister, and the son she left behind, that Purvis raised as her own, keep her committed. Because in the pandemic, she said it’s clearer than ever that her community can be easily separated, isolated and torn apart if people like her don’t act.
“My life and my story coincide with what happens and what’s going on right now,” she said. “It all fits together.”


theguardian--2020-09-25--'I have a sense of urgency': Sufjan Stevens wakes from the American dream

The Oscars were an ordeal for Sufjan Stevens .
“ Honestly , one of the most traumatising experiences of my entire life , ” the songwriter half-laughs , half-groans .
The event was , he says , “ a horrifying Scientology end-of-year prom ” representative of “ everything I hate about America and popular culture ” .
He had never paid much attention to them before being nominated in 2018 .
Mystery of Love – his bittersweet folk ballad , written for Luca Guadagnino ’ s Call Me By Your Name – was up for best original song and Stevens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ devoted fans celebrated this appearance as a moment of long-overdue mainstream recognition for the spotlight-shy then-42-year-old ; 26 million viewers were watching at home , after all .
But for the artist himself , shrinking into his pink-and-black striped blazer as Hollywood A-listers schmoozed around him , there was not much to celebrate .
“ I didn ’ t want to have anything to do with that world and that culture , ” he says .
“ I don ’ t want to be part of any room full of adults hemming and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spent his career adjusting his work to help avoid such rooms .
The Detroit-born composer is an indie household name , with St Vincent , Moses Sumney ( both of whom joined him onstage at the Oscars ) and the National among his peers .
He has fans in hip-hop , too : Kendrick Lamar and Mac Miller have both sampled him , while in 2011 , Donald Glover proclaimed himself “ the only black kid at the Sufjan concert ” in a verse from Fire Fly telegraphing his sensitivity .
But every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the precipice of mainstream success , he has reacted by releasing something challenging or fogged in darkness .
After his 2003 breakthrough Michigan , full of bouncy chamber-pop , came an album of sparse folk meditations ( 2004 ’ s Seven Swans ) themed to his Christian faith .
When 2005 ’ s Illinois topped many publications ’ album-of-the-year lists , propelled by its anthemic single Chicago , he swerved again , releasing an avant-garde multimedia work about a graffiti-splattered highway ( 2009 ’ s The BQE ) and a paranoid electronic opera @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Adz ) .
“ It ’ s never a rebellious thing ; I ’ m always just ready to do something new , ” he says cheerily , sporting a salt-and-pepper beard of late , but with the same boyish , scout-leader good looks he emerged with for his woodsy , self-recorded 1999 debut A Sun Came .
“ I don ’ t need to be famous or sell millions of records .
There ’ s never a conversation with myself about how I ’ m advancing my profile.
” Stevens ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ascension , is another exercise in changing direction after a brief flirtation with fame .
His 2015 album Carrie and Lowell was a bare-bones exploration of grief , inspired by the death of his mother , and hailed as Stevens ’ s greatest achievement yet .
Rather than more of the same , its follow-up is a beautiful , scuffed electropop album that swaps Carrie and Lowell ’ s introspection for outward-looking lyrics , grappling with an American culture he perceives as up in flames .
“ I wanted to respond to changes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human engagement , influenced by the internet and technology , ” he says .
On The Ascension ’ s lead single , America – pointedly released on Independence Day – Stevens sings solemnly : “ I ’ m ashamed to admit I no longer believe.
” It is a far cry from the artist who once famously planned to write an album about every state in America – an intention later abandoned and written off as a joke .
It was believable at the time because his songs frequently resembled celebrations of Americana @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaders .
Since then , his patriotism has become complicated by the advent of “ Donald Duck ” , as he occasionally calls the current occupant of the Oval Office .
“ Christ would be ashamed of us all , ” he wrote on Tumblr in 2017 , after Trump signed an executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US .
“ America , there really is no such thing as an illegal immigrant , ” the letter continued .
“ We are all immigrants and refugees in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boundaries built by blood and war.
” Today , his frustration is even greater , and his perspective somewhat broader : Trump is “ a symptom , not the problem ” whose presidency is evidence of a deep , foundational rot , he rages .
“ Remember that ridiculous Hillary Clinton memoir that came out after she lost the [ 2016 election ] race ?
It was called What Happened .
What happened ?
Shit happened !
For centuries and centuries , people were forcibly removed from one continent and shipped to another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ labour , for 400 years !
” He is not sure of the answers : “ I ’ m not a politician or a civil servant or a scientist , I ’ m just a songwriter.
” He is also unsure of how optimistic to be as November ’ s crucial presidential election approaches : “ What gives me hope ?
Oh God .
Diazepam !
Lithium !
” But Stevens is certain that a Biden win “ won ’ t solve America ’ s problems alone ” , and that the nation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to institutional racism , first require some uncomfortable conversations .
“ It ’ s difficult , ” he says .
“ This is many generations ’ worth of questions and answers that have stacked up .
But we need to show up and do the work.
” That desire is writ large across Stevens ’ s recent output .
In June 2019 , the songwriter released Love Yourself , an EP of songs about “ love without conflict , anxiety or self-deprecation ” to mark 2019 ’ s Pride month , after decades @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subtext in his songs .
On Seven Swans ’ To Be Alone With You , Stevens detailed a man who “ gave up a wife and family … to be alone with me ” .
A year later on the Illinois song The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us !
, his narrator sang of a swim in a lake with a male friend , ending in a gay embrace .
Now 45 , Stevens has declined ever to discuss his romantic life publicly , nor this theme in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these references are non-autobiographical .
Regardless , he has amassed a large LGBTQ+ fanbase who celebrated that EP as his most pronounced acknowledgement of gay rights yet , at a time when those rights have been brought dangerously under threat .
It is this troubled state of the world – coupled with a sense of “ having exorcised all my personal grief ” on Carrie and Lowell – that has given Stevens this new outlook .
“ I have a sense of urgency I don ’ t know I had before , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s heavy use of declarations and imperatives .
Where previously his lyrics were abstract and poetic , his new album is threaded with demands : “ Run away with me ” ; “ Make me an offer I can not refuse ” ; “ Don ’ t do to me what you did to America ” .
There is a line in America that feels especially poignant .
“ I have traded my life for a picture of the scenery , ” he sings through sorrow , as if repenting for his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he claims to feel “ disassociated ” from his old music today .
Does he feel he painted postcards of the US on those tracks , ignoring the darkness ?
A long sigh floats down the phone line .
“ Experience makes fools of us all , ” he says .
“ In experiencing so much and growing older , I ’ ve realised there was definitely a naivety to my former self .
There was a hopefulness , joyfulness and playfulness to a lot of those early records that ’ s been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s hard for me to speak for it because it ’ s happened so gradually , like watching a tree grow .
But you start to lose faith in the structures of society as you get older , and I think that ’ s coming to the surface now.
” A picture-postcard America nevertheless played a big part in the actual making of The Ascension .
Stevens is today sequestered in the mountains upstate from New York , having moved here 18 months ago after 20 years in the city .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to think and work for the last decade , ” he says .
“ Making the permanent move was a total transformation of my life , my mental health and perspective .
I think deep down I ’ m more of a naturalist .
My soul belongs in the wilderness.
” Stevens spent a lot of time in nature as a kid : although he was born in the city , he spent much of his childhood in rural north Michigan , where his “ hippy , eccentric ” father and stepmother did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ six siblings from what he has described previously as constant looming “ domestic and financial disaster ” .
During these years , the outdoors often beckoned .
“ It made creating a life in New York when I was older actually quite hard , ” he says .
“ I had to learn to be an urban dweller .
It was unnatural to me.
” He relocated last year , but the uprooting began in 2016 after touring Carrie and Lowell .
Kicked out of his Brooklyn studio “ for various shitty landlord @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a drum machine and computer after putting his belongings in storage .
“ That ’ s why the nature of this record is so simple : I could only use things I could plug into a computer .
My mind was not really in the folk idiom any more .
I ’ d packed my guitars in the storage and I think mentally I ’ d packed away that aesthetic , too.
” He does not know whether it was the instruments that led him to the socio-political subject matter of The Ascension @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aware that the “ cold , impersonal , synthetic ” sounds he was playing around with and the anxieties swirling around his brain were aligning .
“ For me , the folk idiom is a great platform for storytelling and narrative , ” he says .
“ There ’ s something about the mechanics , the ergonomics of the instrument , that ’ s very personal .
It ’ s very physical , very intimate .
So when I write on the guitar or banjo , it feels natural to tell a story @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working on my laptop on the other hand felt parallel to a lot of the things I was thinking.
” One topic on his mind was social media , a technology he says has rewired our interactions as well our democracy .
“ People start to feel anxiety about who they are and who they feel they ought to be , ” he says , “ and there becomes a real tension between those things .
We ’ re expected to look good , feel good , do good all the time but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into its system.
” Social media has exacerbated “ celebrity culture and idol worship ” , he says , and “ it monetises us , it commodifies human instinct .
There ’ s a loss of identity within that transaction.
” Moreover , “ systemic racism is nothing new .
Corporate greed is nothing new .
Political corruption is old as the hills .
It ’ s just now that we ’ ve built a system in which all of these social diseases are visible and exposed .
In some cases , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s pretty ugly.
” Since completing The Ascension , Stevens has spent lockdown working on new music , which he hints will be another left turn in a career full of them ( “ I ’ d love to make another folk album , ” he teases ) .
He is not planning a pop crossover like his friend Aaron Dessner of the National , who worked with Taylor Swift on her latest album : “ I don ’ t have the constitution for something like that .
If Kanye calls , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Instead , Stevens ’ s priority is more music that encourages listeners to “ ask questions .
I ’ m actually feeling really good right now because we ’ re in a moment of crisis and have an incredible opportunity , ” he says , nodding to the coronavirus pandemic .
“ Business as usual was not sustainable .
Now ’ s the moment to get rid of our former consciousness and work on something better .
It ’ s like a rebirth .
We need a total born-again experience as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a plastic trophy , then .
The Ascension is out now on Asthmatic Kitty

The Oscars were an ordeal for Sufjan Stevens. “Honestly, one of the most traumatising experiences of my entire life,” the songwriter half-laughs, half-groans. The event was, he says, “a horrifying Scientology end-of-year prom” representative of “everything I hate about America and popular culture”.
He had never paid much attention to them before being nominated in 2018. Mystery of Love – his bittersweet folk ballad, written for Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name – was up for best original song and Stevens had been invited to perform. His devoted fans celebrated this appearance as a moment of long-overdue mainstream recognition for the spotlight-shy then-42-year-old; 26 million viewers were watching at home, after all. But for the artist himself, shrinking into his pink-and-black striped blazer as Hollywood A-listers schmoozed around him, there was not much to celebrate. “I didn’t want to have anything to do with that world and that culture,” he says. “I don’t want to be part of any room full of adults hemming and hawing over plastic trophies.”
Stevens has spent his career adjusting his work to help avoid such rooms. The Detroit-born composer is an indie household name, with St Vincent, Moses Sumney (both of whom joined him onstage at the Oscars) and the National among his peers. He has fans in hip-hop, too: Kendrick Lamar and Mac Miller have both sampled him, while in 2011, Donald Glover proclaimed himself “the only black kid at the Sufjan concert” in a verse from Fire Fly telegraphing his sensitivity.
For your consideration … Stevens performs at the Oscars with St Vincent. Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
But every time Stevens has edged too close to the precipice of mainstream success, he has reacted by releasing something challenging or fogged in darkness. After his 2003 breakthrough Michigan, full of bouncy chamber-pop, came an album of sparse folk meditations (2004’s Seven Swans) themed to his Christian faith. When 2005’s Illinois topped many publications’ album-of-the-year lists, propelled by its anthemic single Chicago, he swerved again, releasing an avant-garde multimedia work about a graffiti-splattered highway (2009’s The BQE) and a paranoid electronic opera (2010’s The Age of Adz). “It’s never a rebellious thing; I’m always just ready to do something new,” he says cheerily, sporting a salt-and-pepper beard of late, but with the same boyish, scout-leader good looks he emerged with for his woodsy, self-recorded 1999 debut A Sun Came. “I don’t need to be famous or sell millions of records. There’s never a conversation with myself about how I’m advancing my profile.”
Stevens’s latest and perhaps boldest work, The Ascension, is another exercise in changing direction after a brief flirtation with fame. His 2015 album Carrie and Lowell was a bare-bones exploration of grief, inspired by the death of his mother, and hailed as Stevens’s greatest achievement yet. Rather than more of the same, its follow-up is a beautiful, scuffed electropop album that swaps Carrie and Lowell’s introspection for outward-looking lyrics, grappling with an American culture he perceives as up in flames. “I wanted to respond to changes in the political climate and changes in human engagement, influenced by the internet and technology,” he says.
On The Ascension’s lead single, America – pointedly released on Independence Day – Stevens sings solemnly: “I’m ashamed to admit I no longer believe.” It is a far cry from the artist who once famously planned to write an album about every state in America – an intention later abandoned and written off as a joke. It was believable at the time because his songs frequently resembled celebrations of Americana, constantly invoking its landmarks and former leaders. Since then, his patriotism has become complicated by the advent of “Donald Duck”, as he occasionally calls the current occupant of the Oval Office. “Christ would be ashamed of us all,” he wrote on Tumblr in 2017, after Trump signed an executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. “America, there really is no such thing as an illegal immigrant,” the letter continued. “We are all immigrants and refugees in a wildly changing world, dominated by superfluous boundaries built by blood and war.”
Today, his frustration is even greater, and his perspective somewhat broader: Trump is “a symptom, not the problem” whose presidency is evidence of a deep, foundational rot, he rages. “Remember that ridiculous Hillary Clinton memoir that came out after she lost the [2016 election] race? It was called What Happened. What happened? Shit happened! For centuries and centuries, people were forcibly removed from one continent and shipped to another, where they were forced into free labour, for 400 years!”
Experience makes fools of us all … You start to lose faith in the structures of society as you get older Sufjan Stevens
He is not sure of the answers: “I’m not a politician or a civil servant or a scientist, I’m just a songwriter.” He is also unsure of how optimistic to be as November’s crucial presidential election approaches: “What gives me hope? Oh God. Diazepam! Lithium!” But Stevens is certain that a Biden win “won’t solve America’s problems alone”, and that the nation’s ills, from police brutality to institutional racism, first require some uncomfortable conversations. “It’s difficult,” he says. “This is many generations’ worth of questions and answers that have stacked up. But we need to show up and do the work.”
That desire is writ large across Stevens’s recent output. In June 2019, the songwriter released Love Yourself, an EP of songs about “love without conflict, anxiety or self-deprecation” to mark 2019’s Pride month, after decades of what has been interpreted as queer subtext in his songs. On Seven Swans’ To Be Alone With You, Stevens detailed a man who “gave up a wife and family … to be alone with me”. A year later on the Illinois song The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!, his narrator sang of a swim in a lake with a male friend, ending in a gay embrace.
Now 45, Stevens has declined ever to discuss his romantic life publicly, nor this theme in his work, and it is possible these references are non-autobiographical. Regardless, he has amassed a large LGBTQ+ fanbase who celebrated that EP as his most pronounced acknowledgement of gay rights yet, at a time when those rights have been brought dangerously under threat.
It is this troubled state of the world – coupled with a sense of “having exorcised all my personal grief” on Carrie and Lowell – that has given Stevens this new outlook. “I have a sense of urgency I don’t know I had before,” he says, pointing to The Ascension’s heavy use of declarations and imperatives. Where previously his lyrics were abstract and poetic, his new album is threaded with demands: “Run away with me”; “Make me an offer I cannot refuse”; “Don’t do to me what you did to America”.
There is a line in America that feels especially poignant. “I have traded my life for a picture of the scenery,” he sings through sorrow, as if repenting for his previous positive mythologising of the US; he claims to feel “disassociated” from his old music today. Does he feel he painted postcards of the US on those tracks, ignoring the darkness? A long sigh floats down the phone line. “Experience makes fools of us all,” he says. “In experiencing so much and growing older, I’ve realised there was definitely a naivety to my former self. There was a hopefulness, joyfulness and playfulness to a lot of those early records that’s been slowly receding over the years. It’s hard for me to speak for it because it’s happened so gradually, like watching a tree grow. But you start to lose faith in the structures of society as you get older, and I think that’s coming to the surface now.”
A picture-postcard America nevertheless played a big part in the actual making of The Ascension. Stevens is today sequestered in the mountains upstate from New York, having moved here 18 months ago after 20 years in the city. “I’ve been coming up here to think and work for the last decade,” he says. “Making the permanent move was a total transformation of my life, my mental health and perspective. I think deep down I’m more of a naturalist. My soul belongs in the wilderness.”
We’re expected to look good, feel good, do good all the time but insecurity, instability and disorder are built in, too Sufjan Stevens
Stevens spent a lot of time in nature as a kid: although he was born in the city, he spent much of his childhood in rural north Michigan, where his “hippy, eccentric” father and stepmother did their best to shield Stevens and his six siblings from what he has described previously as constant looming “domestic and financial disaster”. During these years, the outdoors often beckoned. “It made creating a life in New York when I was older actually quite hard,” he says. “I had to learn to be an urban dweller. It was unnatural to me.”
He relocated last year, but the uprooting began in 2016 after touring Carrie and Lowell. Kicked out of his Brooklyn studio “for various shitty landlord reasons”, he could only access a drum machine and computer after putting his belongings in storage. “That’s why the nature of this record is so simple: I could only use things I could plug into a computer. My mind was not really in the folk idiom any more. I’d packed my guitars in the storage and I think mentally I’d packed away that aesthetic, too.”
He does not know whether it was the instruments that led him to the socio-political subject matter of The Ascension or vice versa, but he was aware that the “cold, impersonal, synthetic” sounds he was playing around with and the anxieties swirling around his brain were aligning. “For me, the folk idiom is a great platform for storytelling and narrative,” he says. “There’s something about the mechanics, the ergonomics of the instrument, that’s very personal. It’s very physical, very intimate. So when I write on the guitar or banjo, it feels natural to tell a story. The beats I was constructing when working on my laptop on the other hand felt parallel to a lot of the things I was thinking.”
One topic on his mind was social media, a technology he says has rewired our interactions as well our democracy. “People start to feel anxiety about who they are and who they feel they ought to be,” he says, “and there becomes a real tension between those things. We’re expected to look good, feel good, do good all the time but insecurity, instability and disorder are built into its system.”
Angelic upstart … Sufjan Stevens performs at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco, 2016. Photograph: FilmMagic
Social media has exacerbated “celebrity culture and idol worship”, he says, and “it monetises us, it commodifies human instinct. There’s a loss of identity within that transaction.” Moreover, “systemic racism is nothing new. Corporate greed is nothing new. Political corruption is old as the hills. It’s just now that we’ve built a system in which all of these social diseases are visible and exposed. In some cases, they’re being celebrated and it’s pretty ugly.”
Since completing The Ascension, Stevens has spent lockdown working on new music, which he hints will be another left turn in a career full of them (“I’d love to make another folk album,” he teases). He is not planning a pop crossover like his friend Aaron Dessner of the National, who worked with Taylor Swift on her latest album: “I don’t have the constitution for something like that. If Kanye calls, I’m not home, OK?”
Instead, Stevens’s priority is more music that encourages listeners to “ask questions. I’m actually feeling really good right now because we’re in a moment of crisis and have an incredible opportunity,” he says, nodding to the coronavirus pandemic. “Business as usual was not sustainable. Now’s the moment to get rid of our former consciousness and work on something better. It’s like a rebirth. We need a total born-again experience as a world and society.” Aiming higher than a plastic trophy, then.
The Ascension is out now on Asthmatic Kitty


theguardian--2020-09-26--What a piece of work is this man: Trump trolls liberals with Barrett history play | David Smith's sk

What a piece of work is this man: Trump trolls liberals with Barrett history play | David Smith's sketch

For liberal America , it was a ceremony of unseemly haste to rank with Hamlet having to watch his mother marry his father ’ s murderer .
Enough to make anyone mad .
On a grey Washington day , Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden and introduced Amy Coney Barrett as his next supreme court justice .
It followed hard upon , as Hamlet ’ s pal Horatio would say , the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg .
The liberal justice has not yet been buried .
As Barrett noted , flags are still at half-staff .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the next president decide her successor – was swept aside amid a pageant of giant US flags hanging from colonnades , resembling the day Ginsburg herself was nominated by Bill Clinton .
Some would call it a tribute .
Others would call it trolling .
Nothing would stop Trump pressing ahead with what critics regard as a very American coup , played out in broad daylight just 40 days before an election , imposing rightwing minority rule for a generation .
What was not said at Saturday ’ s event was more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not say he is banking on Barrett to save his neck if he manages to push a close-run presidential election all the way to the court .
Nor , despite having promised in 2016 to appoint only “ pro-life ” judges , did he make any mention of abortion , made legal by the court in 1973 , now more threatened than ever .
Nor was there acknowledgment that Barrett would knock the court off balance : a 6-3 conservative majority handing down decisions on healthcare , gun rights and other issues , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Instead both Trump and Barrett , a former clerk for the late conservative justice Antonin Scalia , sold her as a devotee to the constitution who will prove Democrats ’ worst nightmare during the confirmation process .
This was their pitch : brilliant at her job , brilliant in the domestic sphere , steeped in conservative values .
A living repudiation of liberal feminist narratives about inequality at home and in the workplace .
A throwing down of the gauntlet .
Praising Barrett as “ towering intellect ” , Trump said : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Notre Dame wrote to Justice Scalia with a one-sentence recommendation .
‘ Amy Coney is the best student I ever had.
’ That ’ s pretty good.
” He added : “ If confirmed , Justice Barrett will make history as the first mother of school-age children to serve on the supreme court .
That ’ s good !
” In her own remarks , Barrett graciously began by paying tribute to Ginsburg : “ She not only broke glass ceilings .
She smashed them.
” Then she pivoted to humanising talk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president has asked me to become the ninth justice and , as it happens , I ’ m used to being in a group of nine : my family.
” Her husband , Jesse , and seven children , two of whom were adopted from Haiti , were sitting in the front row .
“ While I am a judge , I ’ m better known back home as a room parent , carpool driver and birthday party planner .
When schools went remote last spring , I tried on another hat : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Barrett e-learning academy.
” There was an echo , perhaps , of the moment Ginsburg told her Senate confirmation hearing that she had “ read briefing books , opinion books , law reviews , but there is no book in the world that means as much ” as one from her grandson .
Barrett continued : “ I couldn ’ t manage this very full life without the unwavering support of my husband , Jesse .
At the start of our marriage , I imagined that we would run our household as partners @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jesse does far more than his share of the work .
To my chagrin , I learned at dinner recently that my children consider him to be the better cook.
” Another reminder of Ginsburg , known to be a terrible cook .
Barrett fits perfectly with the claim of women who work at the White House and who told the Republican convention that Trump is , contrary to public perception , a champion of working mothers .
It was an impressive attempt to scramble assumptions and entangle progressives in arguments over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have thrown in their lot with Trump because of judges as much as anything , were jubilant .
Carrie Severino , president of the Judicial Crisis Network , tweeted : “ Wow .
I had high expectations and I was so impressed by how charming and lovely Amy Coney Barrett is in person .
She knocked it out of the park !
” But after Republicans ’ refusal to grant Merrick Garland , Barack Obama ’ s nominee to the court , a hearing in 2016 , Democrats intend to fight with everything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confidently : “ Her qualifications are unsurpassed and her record is beyond reproach .
This should be a straightforward and prompt confirmation , should be very easy .
Good luck .
It ’ s gon na be very quick .
I ’ ll sure it ’ ll be extremely noncontroversial .
We said that the last time , didn ’ t we ?
” The quip was a bleak reminder of the ferocious battle over Trump ’ s previous nominee , Brett Kavanaugh , accused of sexual assault as a teenager .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more divisive .
The president urged Democrats to provide “ a respectful and dignified hearing ” and the media to refrain from “ personal or partisan attacks ” – an audacious request from the creator of labels such as “ Crooked Hillary ” and “ Sleepy Joe ” .
Trump ’ s wife , Melania , watched from the front row , with Vice-President Mike Pence and his wife , Karen , and Attorney General Bill Barr .
Scalia ’ s widow was also present , as was his son , Eugene Scalia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ judicial philosophy is mine too , ” Barrett said of her mentor .
“ A judge must apply the law as written .
Judges are not policymakers.
” Scalia ’ s death in 2016 set in train events that some now see unfolding with tragic inevitability , possibly all the way to Scalia ’ s disciple sitting on the supreme court and ruling on this year ’ s election .

For liberal America, it was a ceremony of unseemly haste to rank with Hamlet having to watch his mother marry his father’s murderer. Enough to make anyone mad.
On a grey Washington day, Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden and introduced Amy Coney Barrett as his next supreme court justice.
It followed hard upon, as Hamlet’s pal Horatio would say, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The liberal justice has not yet been buried. As Barrett noted, flags are still at half-staff.
But Ginsburg’s last request – that the next president decide her successor – was swept aside amid a pageant of giant US flags hanging from colonnades, resembling the day Ginsburg herself was nominated by Bill Clinton.
Some would call it a tribute. Others would call it trolling.
Nothing would stop Trump pressing ahead with what critics regard as a very American coup, played out in broad daylight just 40 days before an election, imposing rightwing minority rule for a generation.
What was not said at Saturday’s event was more important than what was. Trump did not say he is banking on Barrett to save his neck if he manages to push a close-run presidential election all the way to the court.
01:29 Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett to US supreme court – video
Nor, despite having promised in 2016 to appoint only “pro-life” judges, did he make any mention of abortion, made legal by the court in 1973, now more threatened than ever. Nor was there acknowledgment that Barrett would knock the court off balance: a 6-3 conservative majority handing down decisions on healthcare, gun rights and other issues, likely to be odds with public opinion.
Instead both Trump and Barrett, a former clerk for the late conservative justice Antonin Scalia, sold her as a devotee to the constitution who will prove Democrats’ worst nightmare during the confirmation process.
This was their pitch: brilliant at her job, brilliant in the domestic sphere, steeped in conservative values. A living repudiation of liberal feminist narratives about inequality at home and in the workplace. A throwing down of the gauntlet.
Praising Barrett as “towering intellect”, Trump said: “A very highly respected law professor at Notre Dame wrote to Justice Scalia with a one-sentence recommendation. ‘Amy Coney is the best student I ever had.’ That’s pretty good.”
He added: “If confirmed, Justice Barrett will make history as the first mother of school-age children to serve on the supreme court. That’s good!”
The guests stood and applauded.
In her own remarks, Barrett graciously began by paying tribute to Ginsburg: “She not only broke glass ceilings. She smashed them.”
Trump adjusts the microphone after he announced Barrett as his supreme court nominee. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
Then she pivoted to humanising talk of her home life. “The president has asked me to become the ninth justice and, as it happens, I’m used to being in a group of nine: my family.”
Her husband, Jesse, and seven children, two of whom were adopted from Haiti, were sitting in the front row.
“While I am a judge, I’m better known back home as a room parent, carpool driver and birthday party planner. When schools went remote last spring, I tried on another hat: Jesse and I became co-principals of the Barrett e-learning academy.”
There was an echo, perhaps, of the moment Ginsburg told her Senate confirmation hearing that she had “read briefing books, opinion books, law reviews, but there is no book in the world that means as much” as one from her grandson.
Barrett continued: “I couldn’t manage this very full life without the unwavering support of my husband, Jesse. At the start of our marriage, I imagined that we would run our household as partners. As it has turned out, Jesse does far more than his share of the work. To my chagrin, I learned at dinner recently that my children consider him to be the better cook.”
Another reminder of Ginsburg, known to be a terrible cook.
Barrett fits perfectly with the claim of women who work at the White House and who told the Republican convention that Trump is, contrary to public perception, a champion of working mothers.
It was an impressive attempt to scramble assumptions and entangle progressives in arguments over the meaning of feminism. Conservatives, who have thrown in their lot with Trump because of judges as much as anything, were jubilant.
Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, tweeted: “Wow. I had high expectations and I was so impressed by how charming and lovely Amy Coney Barrett is in person. She knocked it out of the park!”
But after Republicans’ refusal to grant Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s nominee to the court, a hearing in 2016, Democrats intend to fight with everything they’ve got.
Trump said confidently: “Her qualifications are unsurpassed and her record is beyond reproach. This should be a straightforward and prompt confirmation, should be very easy. Good luck. It’s gonna be very quick. I’ll sure it’ll be extremely noncontroversial. We said that the last time, didn’t we?”
The quip was a bleak reminder of the ferocious battle over Trump’s previous nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, accused of sexual assault as a teenager. This confirmation process is likely to be even more divisive.
The president urged Democrats to provide “a respectful and dignified hearing” and the media to refrain from “personal or partisan attacks” – an audacious request from the creator of labels such as “Crooked Hillary” and “Sleepy Joe”.
Trump’s wife, Melania, watched from the front row, with Vice-President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, and Attorney General Bill Barr. Scalia’s widow was also present, as was his son, Eugene Scalia, the labor secretary.
“His judicial philosophy is mine too,” Barrett said of her mentor. “A judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policymakers.”
Scalia’s death in 2016 set in train events that some now see unfolding with tragic inevitability, possibly all the way to Scalia’s disciple sitting on the supreme court and ruling on this year’s election.
For democracy, murder most foul.


theguardian--2020-09-26--Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett to supreme court – as it happened

Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill the supreme court seat vacated with the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg .
Republicans in the US Senate are expected to move immediately to confirm the choice .
That will be accomplished when they can hold a vote on the nominee on the Senate floor , with a bare majority of voting senators needed to confirm the pick .
Any tie would be broken by the vice-president , Mike Pence .
The Republicans appear to have plenty of time to complete the job before the end of the current congressional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is 99 days away .
Of the eight justices currently serving on the court , the average number of days from nomination to final Senate vote has been 72 days , according to the Congressional Research Service .
Here are the steps in the process : After the US president officially notifies the senate of his pick , the judiciary committee , led by close Trump ally senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina , will conduct an investigation of the nominee that includes a background check and that would usually include a request @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the country ’ s largest consortium of lawyers .
As part of the process , the nominee was expected to hold meetings with senators , although Covid-19 restrictions could limit in-person meetings .
This is the part of the supreme court confirmation process that would be most familiar to most people .
In televised hearings , the nominee answers questions from the senate judiciary committee .
The committee may also call other witnesses to testify for or against the nominee .
At times these hearings can be contentious , as two years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with sexual assault allegations by Dr Christine Blasey Ford .
Democrats were expected to fiercely grill Trump ’ s latest nominee on her views on abortion , on the prospect of a contested election , and other issues such as healthcare .
At the end of confirmation hearings , the judiciary committee votes on the nominee .
A majority vote is required to recommend the nominee for a vote by the full Senate on the Senate floor .
Because Republicans hold a majority in the senate , and a majority of the committee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ win the committee ’ s recommendation .
The committee then reports the vote out and a full Senate vote is scheduled .
Graham said in an interview on Fox News earlier this month that he would try to arrange a floor vote before the 3 November election , although senate majority leader Mitch McConnell may wish to hold the vote after the election , because some vulnerable Republican senators up for re-election could be politically damaged by supporting a third Trump supreme court nominee .
If the nominee can win a majority of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ replace Ginsburg on the court .
While the length of the entire process would not be unusually short if such a vote were to be held late in the year , it would be highly unusual for a new supreme court justice to be installed so late in a presidential term .
According to the National Constitution Center , “ the most-recent justices confirmed by the Senate in a December Senate during a presidential election year were William Burnham Woods ( in 1880 ) , Ward Hunt ( in 1872 ) and Salmon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) .
” Trump has said he wants the new justice installed on the court in time to hear any case arising from a potential challenge to the 3 November presidential election result .
Most analysts saw the prospect of a new Trump justice weighing in in his favor in an election case as a surefire disaster for the legitimacy of the court , which already has been eroded by the perception that Republicans stole a seat in 2016 by refusing for eight months to hold hearings on Barack Obama nominee Merrick Garland @

Tom Lutz in New York (now) and Bryan Armen Graham and Martin Pengelly (earlier)

26 Sept 2020 23.47 BST Lisa Murkowski has broken rank with Senate Republicans by saying she does not agree with Donald Trump’s decision to nominate a supreme court justice so close to the election (although she did not say whether she feels the same about Trump nominating after the election if he loses). On Saturday, she said she still intends to meet with Trump’s nomination, Amy Coney Barrett. “For weeks I have stated that I do not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to an election,” said the Alaska senator in a statement. “But today the President exercised his constitutional authority to nominate an individual to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I welcome the opportunity to meet with the Supreme Court nominee, just as I did in 2016.”
26 Sept 2020 23.37 BST We have a nominee. What's next? Tom McCarthy Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill the supreme court seat vacated with the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Republicans in the US Senate are expected to move immediately to confirm the choice. That will be accomplished when they can hold a vote on the nominee on the Senate floor, with a bare majority of voting senators needed to confirm the pick. Any tie would be broken by the vice-president, Mike Pence. The Republicans appear to have plenty of time to complete the job before the end of the current congressional term on 2 January 2021, which is 99 days away. Of the eight justices currently serving on the court, the average number of days from nomination to final Senate vote has been 72 days, according to the Congressional Research Service. Amy Coney Barrett speaks after being nominated for a place on the supreme court. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images Here are the steps in the process: 1. Pre-hearing investigation After the US president officially notifies the senate of his pick, the judiciary committee, led by close Trump ally senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, will conduct an investigation of the nominee that includes a background check and that would usually include a request for advice from the American Bar Association, the country’s largest consortium of lawyers. As part of the process, the nominee was expected to hold meetings with senators, although Covid-19 restrictions could limit in-person meetings. 2. Public confirmation hearings This is the part of the supreme court confirmation process that would be most familiar to most people. In televised hearings, the nominee answers questions from the senate judiciary committee. The committee may also call other witnesses to testify for or against the nominee. At times these hearings can be contentious, as two years ago when justice Brett Kavanaugh was confronted with sexual assault allegations by Dr Christine Blasey Ford. Democrats were expected to fiercely grill Trump’s latest nominee on her views on abortion, on the prospect of a contested election, and other issues such as healthcare. 3. Committee sends nomination to Senate floor At the end of confirmation hearings, the judiciary committee votes on the nominee. A majority vote is required to recommend the nominee for a vote by the full Senate on the Senate floor. Because Republicans hold a majority in the senate, and a majority of the committee seats, the nominee is expected to win the committee’s recommendation. The committee then reports the vote out and a full Senate vote is scheduled. Graham said in an interview on Fox News earlier this month that he would try to arrange a floor vote before the 3 November election, although senate majority leader Mitch McConnell may wish to hold the vote after the election, because some vulnerable Republican senators up for re-election could be politically damaged by supporting a third Trump supreme court nominee. 4. Full senate vote If the nominee can win a majority of votes in the Senate, she will replace Ginsburg on the court. While the length of the entire process would not be unusually short if such a vote were to be held late in the year, it would be highly unusual for a new supreme court justice to be installed so late in a presidential term. According to the National Constitution Center, “the most-recent justices confirmed by the Senate in a December Senate during a presidential election year were William Burnham Woods (in 1880), Ward Hunt (in 1872) and Salmon Chase (in 1864 as chief justice).” Trump has said he wants the new justice installed on the court in time to hear any case arising from a potential challenge to the 3 November presidential election result. Most analysts saw the prospect of a new Trump justice weighing in in his favor in an election case as a surefire disaster for the legitimacy of the court, which already has been eroded by the perception that Republicans stole a seat in 2016 by refusing for eight months to hold hearings on Barack Obama nominee Merrick Garland.
Updated at 23.53 BST
26 Sept 2020 23.25 BST Ed Helmore has written a profile of Amy Coney Barrett for us, and looks at the role religion plays in her personal life and career: The mother of seven – who adopted two children from Haiti – said she admired justice Elena Kagan, an Obama-appointed abortion rights supporter, for bringing “the knowledge and skill she acquired as an academic to the practical resolution of disputes”. But during her confirmation hearing, Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein memorably said Barrett had “a long history of believing that your religious beliefs should prevail” and added: “The dogma lives loudly in you.” Barrett has said she is a “faithful Catholic” but her religious beliefs do not “bear in the discharge of my duties as a judge”. She has also said legal careers ought not to be seen as means of gaining satisfaction, prestige or money, but rather “as a means to the end of serving God”. Read the full article below: Who is Amy Coney Barrett? Trump's anti-abortion supreme court nominee Read more
26 Sept 2020 23.17 BST The Judicial Crisis Network, which focuses on helping confirm conservative judges, says it will spend at least $10m on advertising to support Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the supreme court. In a statement, the organization said any opposition to Barrett was down to “leftwing extremists”. “Justice Ginsburg was confirmed in 42 days, Justice O’Connor in 33, and both confirmations were nearly unanimous,” Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network, said in a statement. “But Democrats won’t be able to bring themselves to support Judge Barrett because they are beholden to leftwing extremists who want to pack the Supreme Court and defund the police while our cities burn.” The difference between Barrett’s likely confirmation and those of Ginsburg and O’Connor is that the latter two were not appointed a matter of days before a presidential election.
26 Sept 2020 23.10 BST CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin has noted the vast difference between Amy Coney Barrett and the woman she is likely to succeed on the supreme court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “The differences for reproductive freedom, for health care, for gun control – or the absence thereof – affirmative action, so many issues, her views are going to be diametrically opposed to Ruth Ginsburg’s,” he said on CNN. “And that’s what Donald Trump promised during the campaign. He is delivering on that promise, and we’re going to see in very short order whether the voters think that’s a good idea.”
26 Sept 2020 23.00 BST Amy Coney Barrett’s opposition to abortion and support for gun rights has been remarked upon. Less discussed is her view on climate change. Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, sees Trump’s nominee as a threat to progress on fighting the climate crisis: “Judge Barrett is an ideological fanatic who lacks the temperament to rule fairly in the interests of all Americans,” he said. “Her slim judicial record shows that she’s hostile to the environment and will slam shut the courthouse doors to public interest advocates, to the delight of corporate polluters. Environmental justice, our climate and wildlife on the brink of extinction will all suffer if Barrett is confirmed.”
26 Sept 2020 22.54 BST Going back to Barrett’s statements at her nomination announcement, she said she intended to follow the example of Antonin Scalia, the conservative supreme court justice who died in 2016 and for whom she worked as a law clerk. “His judicial philosophy is mine, too,” she said. “A judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policymakers, and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they may hold.”
26 Sept 2020 22.46 BST The Democrats appear to be attacking Barrett’s nomination as a threat to healthcare. Following Joe Biden’s earlier statement on Barrett and the Affordable Care Act, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has given his own views: “The American people should make no mistake — a vote by any Senator for Judge Amy Coney Barrett is a vote to strike down the Affordable Care Act and eliminate protections for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions,” Schumer wrote in a statement. “As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage, unabated by this Administration, healthcare was already the number one issue on the ballot in November. President Trump has promised to nominate Supreme Court Justices who will “terminate” our health care law and decimate the health care system for American Indians and Alaska Natives. In Judge Barrett, President Trump has found the deciding vote.” In a 2017 essay, Barrett wrote of her opposition to Chief Justice John Roberts’ actions when he saved the Affordable Care Act in 2012. “Chief Justice Roberts pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute,” Barrett wrote. “He construed the penalty imposed on those without health insurance as a tax, which permitted him to sustain the statute as a valid exercise of the taxing power.”


theguardian--2020-09-26--Trump names Amy Coney Barrett for supreme court, stoking liberal backlash

Donald Trump ’ s pick for America ’ s highest court , Amy Coney Barrett , is an “ ideological fanatic ” who threatens abortion rights , healthcare and the environment , activists warned on Saturday , before Trump unveiled his third supreme court nominee in the White House Rose Garden .
Barrett is the ideological opposite of the woman she will succeed if confirmed , Ruth Bader Ginsburg , who died earlier this month aged 87 .
On Saturday , the Rose Garden at the White House was decorated to mimic its layout when Ginsburg was nominated by Bill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a “ a legal giant and a pioneer for women ” and said “ her extraordinary life and legacy will inspire Americans for generations to come ” .
He added : “ Today it is my honor to nominate one of our nation ’ s most brilliant and gifted legal minds to the supreme court .
She is a woman of unparalleled achievement , towering intellect , sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty to the constitution .
Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
” Barrett , 48 , a devout Catholic who serves on the 7th @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , is a favorite of religious conservatives and could seal Trump ’ s legacy by tilting the court right for a generation .
The Republican-controlled Senate will race to confirm his nominee before the presidential election on 3 November .
Trump said it “ should be a straightforward and prompt confirmation and it should be very easy .
Good luck .
It ’ s going to be very quick .
I ’ m sure it ’ ll be extremely non-controversial .
We said that the last time.
” That was a reference to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s second nomination , of Brett Kavanaugh , in 2018 .
Though Democrats lack the means to stop Barrett , they remain fiercely opposed to her confirmation so close to an election before which Trump trails his challenger , Joe Biden , in the polls .
Four years ago , Republicans in the Senate denied Merrick Garland , chosen by Barack Obama to replace Justice Antonin Scalia when he died in an election year , even so much as a hearing .
As her husband and seven children looked on , Barrett paid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for whom she clerked .
“ Justice Ginsburg began her career at a time when women were not welcome in the legal profession , ” Barrett said .
“ But she not only broke glass ceilings , she smashed them .
For that she has won the admiration of women across the country , and , indeed , all over the world.
” In front of Republican senators and the US attorney general , Bill Barr , whose roles supporting Trump have attracted immense criticism , Barrett said Ginsburg ’ s “ life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to us all ” .
She also seemed to seek to extend a hand across the aisle , remarking that Ginsburg ’ s friendship with Scalia , an arch-conservative , was “ particularly poignant to me ” .
“ Justices Scalia and Ginsburg disagreed fiercely in print , without rancor in person .
Their ability to maintain a warm and rich friendship , despite their differences , even inspired an opera .
These two great Americans demonstrated that arguments , even about matters of great consequence , need not destroy affection .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I strive to meet that standard.
” Few Democrats are likely to respond in kind .
As Barrett spoke , Biden released a statement reaffirming his position that Barrett poses a threat to healthcare coverage and that no one should replace Ginsburg until after inauguration day , 20 January .
“ The United States constitution was designed to give the voters one chance to have their voice heard on who serves on the court , ” Biden said .
“ That moment is now and their voice should be heard .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ until after the American people select their next president and the next Congress.
” The supreme court is a vital check on presidential power and wields huge influence on American society .
A 6-3 rightwing majority would potentially curb abortion rights , strike down gun control laws and uphold new restrictions on voting rights .
Meagan Hatcher-Mays , director of democracy policy at the grassroots organisation Indivisible , said : “ Justice Ginsburg was a brilliant lawyer who dedicated her life to advancing gender equality and civil rights for everyone .
Amy Coney @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The idea that Amy Coney Barrett could replace RBG on the supreme court is an insult to RBG ’ s life and legacy.
” Other campaigners warned of the threat to the planet posed by Barrett ’ s likely opposition to environmental regulation .
Brett Hartl , government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity , said : “ Judge Barrett is an ideological fanatic who lacks the temperament to rule fairly in the interests of all Americans .
“ Her slim judicial record shows that she ’ s hostile to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doors to public interest advocates , to the delight of corporate polluters .
Environmental justice , our climate and wildlife on the brink of extinction will all suffer if Barrett is confirmed.
” Reproductive rights advocacy groups have expressed alarm that Barrett could help overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision that legalised abortion .
And on 10 November , the court is scheduled to hear arguments in a major case in which Trump and Republicans are seeking to invalidate the 2010 Affordable Care Act , known as Obamacare .
If confirmed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Brian Fallon , director of the pressure group Demand Justice , said : “ Barrett ’ s views may make her a darling of Trump ’ s base , but they will also make clear to everyone else that nothing less than the survival of the Affordable Care Act and Roe v Wade are on the line in this fight .
Senate Democrats need to be prepared to resist this pick at all costs.
” But Democrats have few options .
Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber and only two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forward before the election .
A vote on the Senate floor is expected by late October .
Barrett would be Trump ’ s third lifetime appointment to the supreme court , a record which , combined with 200 other federal court judges , is seen as crucial in shoring up support among Christian evangelicals and other conservatives .
Evangelical leaders met Trump in the Oval Office before the unveiling of Barrett .
But Trump ’ s move could also energise liberal voters to turn out in November .
As an appellate judge , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s hardline immigration policies and showed support for expansive gun rights .
She also authored a ruling making it easier for college students accused of campus sexual assaults to sue their institutions .
Catherine Glenn Foster , president and chief executive of the anti-abortion group Americans United For Life , praised Trump for making a “ brave and ambitious choice ” and called Barrett “ the best and most qualified successor ” to Ginsburg .
Trump is the first sitting president to attend the annual anti-abortion March for Life in Washington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Life , said Barrett ’ s expected nomination “ is welcome and exciting news for everyone who values the rule of law and our constitutional rights ” .
She added : “ We have confidence that she will fairly apply the law and constitution as written , which includes protecting the most vulnerable in our nation : our unborn children .
She is a highly gifted jurist and a woman of great accomplishment – a role model for women and girls across the country – and she deserves a vote as expeditiously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a role to play in the presidential election .
Trump suggested this week that the supreme court would be called upon to rule on the outcome , as it did in favour of George W Bush against Al Gore in 2000 .
“ I think it ’ s very important that we have nine justices , ” the president said .
Trump has repeatedly and without evidence said that voting by mail could lead to a surge in election fraud .
He also declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ first woman and first Jewish person to lie in state in the US Capitol .
Biden attended , a day after Trump met with jeers and boos as he visited Ginsburg ’ s casket outside the supreme court building .
Ginsburg will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery , beside her husband .

David Smith in Washington and Martin Pengelly in New York

Donald Trump’s pick for America’s highest court, Amy Coney Barrett, is an “ideological fanatic” who threatens abortion rights, healthcare and the environment, activists warned on Saturday, before Trump unveiled his third supreme court nominee in the White House Rose Garden.
Barrett is the ideological opposite of the woman she will succeed if confirmed, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died earlier this month aged 87.
On Saturday, the Rose Garden at the White House was decorated to mimic its layout when Ginsburg was nominated by Bill Clinton in 1993. Trump called Ginsburg a “a legal giant and a pioneer for women” and said “her extraordinary life and legacy will inspire Americans for generations to come”.
He added: “Today it is my honor to nominate one of our nation’s most brilliant and gifted legal minds to the supreme court. She is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty to the constitution. Judge Amy Coney Barrett.”
Barrett, 48, a devout Catholic who serves on the seventh US circuit court of appeals in Chicago, is a favorite of religious conservatives and could seal Trump’s legacy by tilting the court right for a generation. The Republican-controlled Senate will race to confirm his nominee before the presidential election on 3 November.
Barrett speaks after being nominated. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images
Trump said it “should be a straightforward and prompt confirmation and it should be very easy. Good luck. It’s going to be very quick. I’m sure it’ll be extremely non-controversial. We said that the last time.”
That was a reference to a furious political fight over Trump’s second nomination, of Brett Kavanaugh, in 2018. Though Democrats lack the means to stop Barrett, they remain fiercely opposed to her confirmation so close to an election before which Trump trails his challenger, Joe Biden, in the polls. Four years ago, Republicans in the Senate denied Merrick Garland, chosen by Barack Obama to replace Justice Antonin Scalia when he died in an election year, even so much as a hearing.
As her husband and seven children looked on, Barrett paid tribute to Ginsburg and to Scalia, for whom she clerked.
“Justice Ginsburg began her career at a time when women were not welcome in the legal profession,” Barrett said. “But she not only broke glass ceilings, she smashed them. For that she has won the admiration of women across the country, and, indeed, all over the world.”
In front of Republican senators and the US attorney general, Bill Barr, whose roles supporting Trump have attracted immense criticism, Barrett said Ginsburg’s “life of public service serves as an example to us all”.
She also seemed to seek to extend a hand across the aisle, remarking that Ginsburg’s friendship with Scalia, an arch-conservative, was “particularly poignant to me”.
“Justices Scalia and Ginsburg disagreed fiercely in print, without rancor in person. Their ability to maintain a warm and rich friendship, despite their differences, even inspired an opera. These two great Americans demonstrated that arguments, even about matters of great consequence, need not destroy affection. And in both my personal and professional relationships, I strive to meet that standard.”
Few Democrats are likely to respond in kind. As Barrett spoke, Biden released a statement reaffirming his position that Barrett poses a threat to healthcare coverage and that no one should replace Ginsburg until after inauguration day, 20 January.
The idea that Amy Coney Barrett could replace RBG on the supreme court is an insult to RBG’s life and legacy Meagan Hatcher-Mays, Indivisible
“The United States constitution was designed to give the voters one chance to have their voice heard on who serves on the court,” Biden said. “That moment is now and their voice should be heard. The Senate should not act on this vacancy until after the American people select their next president and the next Congress.”
The supreme court is a vital check on presidential power and wields huge influence on American society. A 6-3 rightwing majority would potentially curb abortion rights, strike down gun control laws and uphold new restrictions on voting rights.
Meagan Hatcher-Mays, director of democracy policy at the grassroots organisation Indivisible, said: “Justice Ginsburg was a brilliant lawyer who dedicated her life to advancing gender equality and civil rights for everyone. Amy Coney Barrett cannot claim the same. The idea that Amy Coney Barrett could replace RBG on the supreme court is an insult to RBG’s life and legacy.”
Other campaigners warned of the threat to the planet posed by Barrett’s likely opposition to environmental regulation. Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said: “Judge Barrett is an ideological fanatic who lacks the temperament to rule fairly in the interests of all Americans.
“Her slim judicial record shows that she’s hostile to the environment and will slam shut the courthouse doors to public interest advocates, to the delight of corporate polluters. Environmental justice, our climate and wildlife on the brink of extinction will all suffer if Barrett is confirmed.”
Reproductive rights advocacy groups have expressed alarm that Barrett could help overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision that legalised abortion. And on 10 November, the court is scheduled to hear arguments in a major case in which Trump and Republicans are seeking to invalidate the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. If confirmed, Barrett could cast a decisive vote.
Karen and Mike Pence sit across the aisle from Melania Trump and Barrett’s family as Barrett speaks. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA
Brian Fallon, director of the pressure group Demand Justice, said: “Barrett’s views may make her a darling of Trump’s base, but they will also make clear to everyone else that nothing less than the survival of the Affordable Care Act and Roe v Wade are on the line in this fight. Senate Democrats need to be prepared to resist this pick at all costs.”
But Democrats have few options. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber and only two GOP senators have expressed opposition to moving forward before the election. A vote on the Senate floor is expected by late October.
We have confidence that she will fairly apply the law and constitution, which includes protecting our unborn children Jeanne Mancini, March for Life
Barrett would be Trump’s third lifetime appointment to the supreme court, a record which, combined with 200 other federal court judges, is seen as crucial in shoring up support among Christian evangelicals and other conservatives. Evangelical leaders met Trump in the Oval Office before the unveiling of Barrett.
But Trump’s move could also energise liberal voters to turn out in November. As an appellate judge, Barrett voted in favour of one of Trump’s hardline immigration policies and showed support for expansive gun rights. She also authored a ruling making it easier for college students accused of campus sexual assaults to sue their institutions.
Catherine Glenn Foster, president and chief executive of the anti-abortion group Americans United For Life, praised Trump for making a “brave and ambitious choice” and called Barrett “the best and most qualified successor” to Ginsburg.
00:50 'Vote him out': Trump booed while paying respects to Ruth Bader Ginsburg – video
Trump is the first sitting president to attend the annual anti-abortion March for Life in Washington. Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, said Barrett’s expected nomination “is welcome and exciting news for everyone who values the rule of law and our constitutional rights”.
She added: “We have confidence that she will fairly apply the law and constitution as written, which includes protecting the most vulnerable in our nation: our unborn children. She is a highly gifted jurist and a woman of great accomplishment – a role model for women and girls across the country – and she deserves a vote as expeditiously as possible.”
Barrett may even have a role to play in the presidential election. Trump suggested this week that the supreme court would be called upon to rule on the outcome, as it did in favour of George W Bush against Al Gore in 2000.
“I think it’s very important that we have nine justices,” the president said.
Trump has repeatedly and without evidence said that voting by mail could lead to a surge in election fraud. He also declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power.
Ginsburg made history on Friday as the first woman and first Jewish person to lie in state in the US Capitol. Biden attended, a day after Trump met with jeers and boos as he visited Ginsburg’s casket outside the supreme court building.
Ginsburg will be buried next week at Arlington national cemetery, beside her husband.


theguardian--2020-09-26--Trump has nominated Barrett to the supreme court – what happens next?

Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill the supreme court seat vacated with the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Republicans in the US Senate are expected to move immediately to confirm the choice.
That will be accomplished when they can hold a vote on the nominee on the Senate floor, with a bare majority of voting senators needed to confirm the pick. Any tie would be broken by the vice-president, Mike Pence.
The Republicans appear to have plenty of time to complete the job before the end of the current congressional term on 2 January 2021, which is 99 days away. Of the eight justices currently serving on the court, the average number of days from nomination to final Senate vote has been 72 days, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Here are the steps in the process:
1. Pre-hearing investigation
After the US president officially notifies the senate of his pick, the judiciary committee, led by close Trump ally senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, will conduct an investigation of the nominee that includes a background check and that would usually include a request for advice from the American Bar Association, the country’s largest consortium of lawyers. As part of the process, the nominee was expected to hold meetings with senators, although Covid-19 restrictions could limit in-person meetings.
2. Public confirmation hearings
This is the part of the supreme court confirmation process that would be most familiar to most people. In televised hearings, the nominee answers questions from the senate judiciary committee. The committee may also call other witnesses to testify for or against the nominee. At times these hearings can be contentious, as two years ago when justice Brett Kavanaugh was confronted with sexual assault allegations by Dr Christine Blasey Ford.
Democrats were expected to fiercely grill Trump’s latest nominee on her views on abortion, on the prospect of a contested election, and other issues such as healthcare.
3. Committee sends nomination to Senate floor
At the end of confirmation hearings, the judiciary committee votes on the nominee. A majority vote is required to recommend the nominee for a vote by the full Senate on the Senate floor. Because Republicans hold a majority in the senate, and a majority of the committee seats, the nominee is expected to win the committee’s recommendation. The committee then reports the vote out and a full Senate vote is scheduled.
Graham said in an interview on Fox News earlier this month that he would try to arrange a floor vote before the 3 November election, although senate majority leader Mitch McConnell may wish to hold the vote after the election, because some vulnerable Republican senators up for re-election could be politically damaged by supporting a third Trump supreme court nominee.
4. Full senate vote
If the nominee can win a majority of votes in the Senate, she will replace Ginsburg on the court. While the length of the entire process would not be unusually short if such a vote were to be held late in the year, it would be highly unusual for a new supreme court justice to be installed so late in a presidential term.
According to the National Constitution Center, “the most-recent justices confirmed by the Senate in a December Senate during a presidential election year were William Burnham Woods (in 1880), Ward Hunt (in 1872) and Salmon Chase (in 1864 as chief justice).”
Trump has said he wants the new justice installed on the court in time to hear any case arising from a potential challenge to the 3 November presidential election result. Most analysts saw the prospect of a new Trump justice weighing in in his favor in an election case as a surefire disaster for the legitimacy of the court, which already has been eroded by the perception that Republicans stole a seat in 2016 by refusing for eight months to hold hearings on Barack Obama nominee Merrick Garland.