“Just after 8 p.m. on Monday, at the end of a thirty-one-hour session of the Senate, Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who was presiding, peered from the podium and asked if any senators still needed to vote. Hearing that none did, he said, ‘The ayes are fifty-two. The nays are forty-eight. The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court is confirmed!’ He said it as if he were announcing the winner on a game show, and the Republican senators in the room reacted accordingly, standing and cheering. Barrett wasn’t so much the victor as the prize—their prize.” A ceremony followed and with that, Justice Amy Coney Barrett Was Sworn In Under Darkness at the White House.

+ The confirmation process was fast and unprecedented, and so too will be the pace at which Barrett will hear some of the most pressing cases in America. 4 upcoming Supreme Court cases will reveal who Amy Coney Barrett really is.

+ There’s one potential case that Trump is eying closely. Slate: “Put simply, Barrett’s first actions on the court could hand Donald Trump an unearned second term, and dramatically curtail states’ ability to protect the right to vote.” The president was already helped by yesterday’s SCOTUS decision that prevented a plan to allow mail in ballots, postmarked by election day, to be counted for up to six days afterwards. Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued that “States want to avoid the chaos and suspicions of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of absentee ballots flow in after election day and potentially flip the results of an election. And those States also want to be able to definitively announce the results of the election on election night, or as soon as possible thereafter.” Of course, that chaos and those suspicions are all coming from the president and his right wing echo chamber. Around the time the Court rendered its decision, in a tweet Twitter labeled misleading, Trump argued: “Big problems and discrepancies with Mail In Ballots all over the USA. Must have final total on November 3rd.”

+ So let’s review the president’s strategy as he heads into an election where the polls are decidedly against him. Step one: Without any evidence, attack voting by mail nonstop for months. Step two: Slow down the postal service in key swing states, an effort that was stifled, but not stopped (“Parts of the presidential battleground states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio fell short of delivery goals by wide margins.”) Step 3: Push through a Barrett confirmation, further packing the Court with judges who will limit time for counting all ballots. Step 4: Regardless of the state of vote counting, declare victory on November 3. Step 5: Start legal fight to support that claim of victory. Step 6: Take that legal fight all the way to the Supreme Court you just packed.