Senate Judiciary Republicans advance Barrett nomination despite Democrats' boycott, committee rules

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday unanimously advanced the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett at its executive business meeting despite a decision by Democrats to boycott the markup in protest of how close Republicans are moving the nomination to Election Day. 

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that the boycott "is not a decision the members of the committee have taken lightly, but the Republican majority has left us no choice. We are boycotting this illegitimate hearing."

Barrett was reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee by 12-0, with no Democrats present. 

"That was their choice. It will be my choice to vote the nominee out of committee," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said at the beginning of the meeting. "We are not going to allow them to take over the committee. They made a choice not to participate."

Graham also slammed Democrats for allegedly beginning the process that led to the increased politicization of the Supreme Court during the Obama administration, when they removed the filibuster for lower federal court nominees. 

"I remember telling Sen. Schumer, 'You will regret this,'" Graham said Thursday of when Democrats got rid of the judicial filibuster. "Today he will regret it."

The acrimony around judicial nominations can be traced all the way back to the nomination of Judge Robert Bork in the 1980s and has been contributed to by, among other things, Republicans' decision to hold open the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia for months before the 2016 presidential election. 

The move follows a declaration from Schumer earlier this month that Democrats would not "supply the quorum" for votes like the one scheduled Thursday to advance Barrett out of committee. So it is not a total surprise, but other Democrats on the Judiciary Committee did not confirm their boycott until late Wednesday. They said they are making the move in response to the "breakneck speed" at which Republicans are moving to "jam through this nominee" and that Republicans broke "longstanding committee rules to set tomorrow's vote."