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Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Barrett's Supreme Court Nomination

October 22, 2020 / 7:57 AM PDT / KCAL News

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WASHINGTON (CBS NEWS) -- The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court on Thursday, clearing the way for a full Senate vote in the week before the election.

US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (L) sits next to a portrait of a person who relies on the Affordable Care Act as Democratic Senators on the Judiciary Committee boycott the vote on Amy Coney Barrett to serve as an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the US during a Senate Judiciary Committee Executive Business meeting in Washington, DC, on October 22, 2020. - The Senate Judiciary Committee pushed through US President Donald Trump's conservative pick for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barret, Thursday as Democrats boycotted the vote saying it was too close to the November 3 election. (Photo by HANNAH MCKAY / CQ Roll Call / AFP) (Photo by HANNAH MCKAY/CQ Roll Call/AFP via Getty Images)

All 12 Republicans on the committee voted to advance the nomination, while all 10 Democrats boycotted the vote. With Democrats absent, large photographs of people who rely on the Affordable Care Act for their health care were placed in front of their empty chairs at the meeting. Democrats have raised concerns that Barrett would vote to overturn the ACA if confirmed to the court, given her previous criticism of a ruling upholding the law.

However, the Democrats' boycott did not stop Republicans from moving forward with her nomination. At the meeting on Thursday morning, Graham said that it was Democrats' "choice" to boycott the vote, but "we're not going to allow them to take over the committee."

READ MORE ON CBS NEWS.

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