Waco Reporter

State Republican Executive Committee District 22 Chairman Jon Ker believes Justice Amy Coney Barrett was the right choice to fill the U.S. Supreme Court opening.

"Justice Barrett has proven herself to be a worthy jurist who approaches her judicial duties with the correct frame of mind — to interpret the law, not legislate from the bench," Ker told the Waco Reporter in an e-mail.

Barrett was confirmed by the Senate in a 52-48 vote about a week prior to the Nov. 3 General Election. She was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the opening following Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing. Barrett was the president's third Supreme Court nominee. Ker also voiced his enthusiasm for returning the Supreme Court to a conservative majority.

"We return to the constitutionally honored and established three separate branches of government which provides the intended checks and balances to protect the citizenry and preserve the “We the People” as the head of the government, not the reverse," he said.

Democrats had argued the vacancy should have been filled after the presidential election. Ker disagreed, noting the Constitution provides Trump the right to nominate someone to fill a vacancy on the bench. 

"Nowhere in the Constitution is this power limited because it is an election year," Ker said in the e-mail, "where the President has the majority of Senators from his own party, there is no constitutional or moral reason to not make a nomination to the Supreme Court at any time of that presidency. The people elected the president and the majority in the Senate."

Ker believes Democrats were intentionally trying to slow down Barrett's confirmation, saying their actions showed they were concerned with power and not what's best for the country. He said Trump's nominations to fill vacancies in the Supreme Court with conservative jurists were campaign promises that were followed through.

"Their focus on power is to achieve their goal as announced by (then) President-elect Barrack Obama of fundamentally transforming this nation. That has been proven now to turn our country to socialism and Marxism," Ker said. 

He believes Trump was a stumbling block for the Democrat Party in achieving that goal. 

"All of the false accusations and baseless efforts promoted by the Democrats to hinder the president and remove him from office confirm the truth of this analysis," he added.