WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last night to discuss Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On the consequences of Justice Barrett’s confirmation, Sen. Coons said: “Justice Barrett, within a couple of weeks, is going to have a chance to weigh in on the things that President Trump said he most wanted from her. Overturning the Affordable Care Act – that case is being heard just two weeks from tomorrow. Protecting his taxes and shielding him from accountability – that case will be heard this month. And quite possibly handing him the election by refusing to count our votes in appeals to the Supreme Court.”

On Justice Barrett’s conservative views, Sen. Coons said: “Judge Barrett, now Justice Barrett, convinced me from her writings and my questioning of her that she has a view of the law that's to the right of Justice Scalia.”

On Trump’s judicial appointments, Sen. Coons said: “We've got to look at our courts as a whole because we've seen hundreds of conservative judges put on circuit courts and district courts all over this country in the last four years, in many cases, too young, too unqualified, and too far right to be allowed to sit peaceably without our re-examining the process, the results, and the consequences.” 

Full video is available here. A transcript is provided below.

Q: Joining us now is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Delaware Senator Chris Coons. Senator Coons, it's a real pleasure to have you here tonight. Thanks very much for joining us. 

Sen. Coons: Thanks, Rachel. It's been a tough night, and I'm grateful for a chance to be on with you. 

Q: So I know that Democrats did everything they felt they could, including as many delaying tactics as they could extend to this process, up to and including working through this weekend, going into closed session, doing everything possible. But you said tonight on the Senate floor: “I fear we as a nation have not fully reckoned with the impact that a 6-3 conservative court will have on so many aspects of our lives.” Now that the process part of this is over and the hypocrisy part of this is over and this is done, what are your biggest concerns about the Court as it will now be constituted with a Justice Barrett on its right flank? 

Sen. Coons: Well Rachel, first, Justice Barrett, within a couple of weeks, is going to have a chance to weigh in on the things that President Trump said he most wanted from her. Overturning the Affordable Care Act – that case is being heard just two weeks from tomorrow. Protecting his taxes and shielding him from accountability – that case will be heard this month. And quite possibly handing him the election by refusing to count our votes in appeals to the Supreme Court that you were just discussing a few moments ago. So very quickly, right up front, we'll see a couple of ways in which Justice Barrett, if she does sit and hear these things, may well change the arc of our history. But as I pointed out in my questioning of then-Judge Barrett on the Judiciary Committee, there's over 120 cases over recent years, over recent decades, where Justice Ginsburg was in the majority and Justice Scalia in the minority of a 5-4 decision. And, Rachel, they covered an incredible range of things from labor rights to LGBTQ rights, from environmental protection to Native American rights, to criminal defense issues, to the ways in which consumers are protected. Judge Barrett, now Justice Barrett, convinced me from her writings and my questioning of her that she has a view of the law that's to the right of Justice Scalia. I thought it was powerfully and chillingly symbolic that she asked Justice Thomas to symbolically swear her in tonight on the steps of the White House, treating the White House as a soundstage for the latest episode of Trump reality TV show, reelection theater, because it's Justice Thomas, the farthest right justice, who has repeatedly said we should look back and reconsider all sorts of cases. Something like, for example, Obergefell, that millions of Americans have rested their lives on and have moved forward in reliance upon, to cases decades ago like Griswold v. Connecticut that I asked her about and she wouldn't answer that is the foundation of privacy law. Rachel, I'm really worried about just how much this will mean in ways we are just now beginning to confront. 

Q: And this point in the process, Senator Coons, as you say, a difficult night for you and your colleagues in the Senate who did try to do everything possible to stop this from happening. What do you say tonight to Democrats and, I think, liberals and centrists across the country who are enraged by what has happened here? President Obama being denied the opportunity to appoint a nominee to the Court even when he picked somebody quite moderate, specifically as a way to try to appeal to Republicans and their sense of fair play. Mitch McConnell essentially engineering three vacancies on this Court for President Trump to fill and the kinds of radical transformation that's ahead. You said tonight that Republicans are walking over a dangerous precipice. What do you say to Americans who want some kind of retribution or want to try to even this out somehow given what the Republicans have done? 

[…]

Sen. Coons: We've got to have a wide-open conversation about how we rebalance our courts. Yes, the two Supreme Court seats that have been stolen through these processes that are wildly hypocritical have been used to jam through nominees. We've got to look at our federal courts as a whole because we've seen hundreds of conservative judges put on circuit courts and district courts all over this country in the last four years, in many cases, too young, too unqualified, and too far right to be allowed to sit peaceably without our re-examining the process, the results, and the consequences. 

Q: Delaware U.S. Senator Chris Coons. Sir, I know this is just a remarkable time for a lot of different reasons, but thank you for taking time to help us explain this all tonight. Thank you so much, sir. 

Sen. Coons: Thank you, Rachel. 

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