An iconic New Orleans eatery, K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, is no more, one of countless economic casualties of a pandemic that has flattened businesses across America.“We hung on as long as we could,” co-owner Brenda Prudhomme told VOA, “but we had no choice but to shut down.”Closing K-Paul’s was no easy choice. The restaurant had been a local favorite in the heart of the city’s legendary French Quarter since her aunt and uncle opened its doors 40 years ago. Her uncle was Paul Prudhomme, a nationally recognized celebrity chef credited with popularizing Creole and Cajun cuisines through his best-selling cookbooks and beloved television shows.“K-Paul’s means so much to us, and to the customers who have been dining here for decades,” Prudhomme said. “But when something like a global pandemic happens and the government doesn’t do enough to help small businesses, we’re only left with horrible choices.”Months of negotiations in Congress have stalemated on a new round of economic stimulus that would provide additional relief to struggling Americans. The most recent attempt failed in the Senate earlier this month as Democrats pushed for more expansive benefits while Republicans sought a more limited package. Both sides have blamed each other for the impasse. Many view Congress as unlikely to pass anything before the November election.Congress’ inability to forge an agreement is having far-reaching consequences for tens of millions of Americans who received federal help earlier this year that has run out.Round 1 not enoughWhen the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the United States in February and March, the nation’s economy appeared headed toward an unprecedented collapse. By April, the U.S. unemployment rate had reached 14.7%, the highest rate since the Great Depression.In late March, Congress passed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act. The massive expenditure provided a substantial financial boost for many struggling Americans, including a $600 weekly supplement of unemployment benefits and one-time stimulus checks of up to $1,200 for middle- and lower-income earners.Those payments ceased in July, severing an important economic lifeline for New Orleans, where the hospitality and tourism industries, both hit hard by the pandemic, employ about 20% of the local workforce.Kevin Caldwell found that initial infusion of revenue a lifesaver for his family. Before COVID-19, he bartended at a popular music club while his wife worked at a well-known restaurant.“I’ve been in the service industry for decades,” Caldwell said, “and I know live music is going to be one of the last things allowed back at the end of this crisis. It’s beyond our control, so we just have to wait and hope we get some support.”In the first few months of the pandemic, Caldwell said he and his wife were both receiving $847 in unemployment insurance per week thanks to the CARES Act. When the supplement expired, their weekly unemployment insurance checks dropped to $247.“We’re not in a personal crisis yet, but we’re getting close,” Caldwell said. “Pretty soon we’re not going to be able to afford our health insurance, and that’s not ideal during a pandemic.”Waiting for Round 2The CARES Act wasn’t meant to help only struggling individuals. Initiatives like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) were funded to assist businesses affected by the pandemic by helping them retain and pay employees, and to survive revenue losses.Businesses that qualified for a PPP loan, for example, were awarded enough funding to pay their workforce their salary for about 10 weeks. Many economists believe it could be 2022 or even 2023 before the U.S. economy fully recovers.“We received help from those programs,” Prudhomme said, “but it’s really just a shot in the arm. Spring revenue is huge in New Orleans, because the summers get pretty dead here. Now we lost spring, summer and were going to miss the fall, too. The funding we got wasn’t enough to sustain us. We were hoping for a second round, but it never came.”Joe Frisard with his dogs, Robert and Bruno. Frisard is a freelancer in New Orleans. He rents out a portion of his home through Airbnb, but the coronavirus pandemic has cut his income by more than 40%. (Photo Courtesy Joe Frisard)Another New Orleanian, Joe Frisard, has experienced similar challenges. He is a self-employed freelancer, with income streams as diverse as videography, restaurant work, and renting part of his home on Airbnb. He received a $1,200 stimulus check, as well as some assistance from the EIDL program, but said neither is sufficient during a pandemic that drags on and on.“I’ve lost 40% of my income during COVID, but all my bills are still there,” he said. “During the spring, with all the New Orleans festivals, I could make as much as $4,000 per month renting out a room in my home. Because of coronavirus, my total from mid-March to May wasn’t even $1,000 combined.”Frisard said he felt he could last five months before he had to start pulling money from his retirement fund. But he’s angry because he thinks politicians should be doing more to help Americans navigate a crisis this rare and severe.“I’m lucky to even have money saved,” he acknowledged. “A lot of people don’t have that. People are going homeless. They can’t pay for food. And somehow Congress isn’t able to pass another stimulus? They’re playing politics with peoples’ lives and it’s not moral.”Kevin Caldwell said he’s watching what both parties do as debates around additional support for struggling Americans and businesses continue because it’s an issue that is hitting close to home for him, as well as for most Americans. It’s also an issue he feels should factor into November presidential contest as well as congressional elections.“It affects me, it affects my wife, it affects the company at which I work, it affects my co-workers, and it affects most New Orleanians in some way,” he said. “So, yeah, I’m keeping a close eye on it. And what each party does will directly affect how I vote this November.” 
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Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell promised shortly after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was announced Friday that he would bring President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace her to a full Senate vote.“President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate,” McConnell said in a statement that did not indicate when it would happen.Nonetheless, the death of the liberal Supreme Court justice triggers a confirmation process mandated by the Constitution that begins with the president.Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution provides that the president “shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint … judges to the Supreme Court.”After Trump, a Republican, nominates the person of his choice, the selection is sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, currently with 22 members (12 Republicans and 10 Democrats).Three stepsThe committee then starts a three-step process beginning with a prehearing investigation into the nominee’s background, followed by a public hearing, during which the nominee is questioned. The committee then submits a report to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation, a negative one or no recommendation at all.The committee also can refuse to submit a report on the nomination if most members oppose the nominee, preventing the full Senate from considering the nominee.If the committee votes to report the nomination to the full Senate, the 100-member body must enter a special “executive session” to consider the nomination, typically with the Senate majority leader asking members for unanimous consent.If unanimous consent cannot be achieved, a member can move that the Senate consider the nominee. If the motion is made during the executive session, it can be debated and even blocked by a political delaying tactic known as a filibuster.Ending debate on the motion to allow a Senate vote would require a supermajority of 60 votes, a tall order considering the balance in the Senate, currently made up of 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents.If the motion to consider the nominee is made in a regular legislative session, the nomination will be considered by the full Senate. Senate rules, however, allow a vote on the nomination to also be blocked by filibuster.Simple majority for confirmationA full Senate vote to confirm the nominee requires a simple majority. If the nominee is confirmed, the Senate secretary will send the confirmation vote to the president to sign a commission appointing the person to the Supreme Court.Aside from the traditional confirmation process, Article II of the Constitution also says the president “shall have the power to fill up all the vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate” and that the appointment can remain effective until the end of the Senate’s next session, which began January 3, 2020, and ends January 3, 2021.A Senate confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee typically has taken about 70 days, much longer than the time remaining before the November 3 presidential election. The Senate is currently scheduled to recess in mid-October, but the schedule could change.The Senate can act on the nomination until January 20, 2021, the date of the presidential inauguration. If Trump is reelected and his nominee has not been confirmed by the inauguration, he could nominate his choice a second time when his second term in office begins.
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The death of liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves a pivotal vacancy on the bench, giving President Donald Trump a rare opportunity to solidify his imprint on the right-leaning court with a third appointment with potentially far-reaching consequences for the country for a generation to come.  
   
With a new super-majority on the bench, conservative forces could prevail on issues ranging from abortion rights to immigration to expanding executive powers. Until now, Trump has essentially retained the status quo on the bench by appointing two conservative jurists – Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – to succeed other Republican-appointed justices.   
   
Now, with the death of Ginsburg, Trump can do something no other president has accomplished in a generation:  replace a liberal justice with a conservative jurist, pushing the court further to the right.  The last time this opportunity presented itself was when Republican President George H. W. Bush nominated conservative judge Clarence Thomas in 1991 to replace liberal icon Thurgood Marshall.     
   
Appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993, Ginsburg, who died Friday at her home in Washington at the age of 87 after five bouts with cancer, was the oldest and longest serving liberal justice on the nine-member Supreme Court.    
   
For months this year, as Ginsburg’s health deteriorated, progressives fretted that her death would enable Trump to nominate a replacement ahead of the November presidential election, regardless of whether voters decide to re-elect him for a second term.Flowers and tributes are seen as people gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court following the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in Washington, Sept. 19, 2020.For many liberals, their worst fears have been realized.  “The next nominee is all but guaranteed to be well to the right” of Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, Trump’s two choices to the high court, said Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court.   
   
A lifelong champion of women’s rights, Ginsburg served as a federal judge from 1980 to 1993, when President Bill Clinton nominated her to the Supreme Court to become only the second woman in history to serve on the bench. Before her career as a federal jurist, Ginsburg made a mark as a women’s rights advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union in the 1970s, leading high-profile litigation against gender discrimination that led to changes in the law.     
   
“I have four daughters, and I told them just now that this woman singlehandedly established rights for women as equal human beings,” said Kimberly Wehle, a professor of law at the University of Baltimore. “Of course, there are many women and men that contributed to that. But in terms of how the law was shaped, it was her work as a lawyer and, of course, as a Supreme Court justice.”     
   
Known for speaking her mind, Ginsburg famously clashed with Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, calling him a “faker,” prompting the real estate mogul to call on her to resign.    
   
In a statement issued late Friday, Trump praised Ginsburg as a “fighter,” saying her legal opinions “inspired all Americans, and generations of great legal minds.”    
   
With Ginsburg’s passing, the Supreme Court is ideologically divided between five conservatives – including the two Trump nominees – and three liberals. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts has sometimes served as a swing vote.     
   
The addition of a sixth conservative justice would help solidify what conservatives have long viewed as a tenuous hold over the court.   
   
“It makes a big difference whether you have six conservative-leaning justices on the court or five conservative justices on the court,” said John Malcolm, vice president for the Institute for Constitutional Government at the conservative Heritage Foundation.     
   
Historically, however, a string of Republican court appointees, going back to former Chief Justice Earl Warren and associate justice William Brennan, both appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, has adopted liberal positions, Malcolm noted. FILE – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks during a discussion on the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, Feb. 10, 2020.“So, even if the court was ‘more conservative’ in the sense that there were more Republican appointees, that did not make it a more conservative court,” Malcolm said.  
   
The Heritage Foundation and the conservative Federalist Society have both advised the White House on Trump’s judicial nominees.      
   
Gorsuch and Kavanaugh – while solidly conservative – have occasionally broken ranks and voted with the court’s liberal wing on key issues, angering some on the right.   
   
Trump, who campaigned on appointing conservative judges four years ago and takes pride on his judicial appointment record, recently released a list of 20 potential Supreme Court nominees, describing them as jurists in the mold of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and current conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.    
   
Among the front runners on Trump’s list are Amy Coney Barrett, Amul Thapar and Thomas Hardiman, all currently appeals court judges.     
   
If Trump decides to replace Ginsburg with another woman, Barrett will likely be considered the front runner, Malcolm said.    
   
Barrett, 48, was appointed to the federal court of appeals for the seventh circuit in 2017.     
   
Malcolm described her as a jurist committed to textualism and originalism – constitutional interpretation theories championed by conservatives.   
   
“I would say the same thing about just about everybody on the president’s list,” Malcolm said. A man kneels in front of a memorial of candles and flowers outside the Supreme Court, Sept. 18, 2020, in Washington, after the Supreme Court announced that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died of metastatic pancreatic cancer.Wehle, who is the author of a book about the U.S. Constitution, said the appointment of another conservative justice could affect a host of contentious issues: abortion rights, immigration, health care, the separation of church and state and others.    
   
“It takes two-thirds of a majority of both houses of Congress and ratification by three quarters of the states to amend the Constitution through the will of the people,” Wehle noted. “But it only takes five lifelong members of the United States Supreme Court to effectively amend the Constitution in a decision.”    
   
The prospects are solid that Trump could prevail in appointing a conservative to succeed Ginsburg, even if he loses to Democrat Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 election. With the help of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Trump could try to push through a nomination before the election or – more likely – during the lame duck session of Congress after the election.  
 
Just days before her death, Ginsburg reportedly dictated these words to her granddaughter, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
 
A confirmation vote ahead of the inauguration is likely to prove toxic, making the contentious hearings over Kavanaugh’s nomination in 2018 “seem like an energetic pillow fight,” Malcolm predicted.
 
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President Donald Trump on Saturday urged the Republican-run Senate to consider “without delay” his upcoming nomination to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just six weeks before the election.The White House was making preparations to select a nominee for the seat held by Ginsburg, who spent her final years on the bench as the unquestioned leader of the court’s liberal wing.Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, vowed on Friday night, hours after Ginsburg’s death, to call a vote for whomever Trump nominated. Democrats said Republicans should follow the precedent they set in 2016 by not considering a Supreme Court choice in the run-up to an election.Trump made his view clear in a tweet Saturday: “We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices. We have this obligation, without delay!”.@GOP We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices. We have this obligation, without delay!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2020Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said any vote should come after the Nov. 3 election. “Voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice to consider,” Biden said.The impending clash over the vacant seat — when to fill it and with whom — is sure to significantly affect the stretch run of the presidential race, further stirring passions in a nation already reeling from the pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 people, left millions unemployed and heightened partisan tensions and anger.McConnell, who sets the calendar in the Senate and has made judicial appointments his priority, declared unequivocally in a statement that Trump’s nominee would receive a confirmation vote in the chamber. In 2016, McConnell refused to consider President Barack Obama’s choice for the high court months ahead of the election, eventually preventing a vote.As the nation learned of Ginsburg’s death, Trump was unaware, speaking for more than an hour and a half at a Minnesota rally without mentioning it. He huddled with aides after stepping off stage but acted surprised when he spoke with reporters moments later, saying he did not know she had died.Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg Dies at 87Ginsburg, a stalwart liberal and the second woman to serve on the court, died Friday from complications with cancer The president told reporters that Ginsburg was “an amazing woman who led an amazing life.” Aides had worried how the Minnesota crowd would react if Trump mentioned her death from the stage, according to a White House official not authorized to publicly discuss private deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.But Trump had noted in his rally speech that the next presidential term could offer him as many as four appointments to the nine-member court, whose members are confirmed for life. “This is going to be the most important election in the history of our country and we have to get it right,” he added.A confirmation vote in the Senate is not guaranteed, even with a Republican majority. McConnell has not indicated if he bring a vote before the election.Typically it takes several months to vet and hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee, and time is short ahead of the election. Key senators may be reluctant to cast votes so close to the election. With a slim GOP majority, 53 seats in the 100-member chamber, Trump’s choice could afford to lose only a few.McConnell did not specify the timing, but trying for confirmation in a post-election lame-duck session if Trump had lost to Biden or Republicans had lost the Senate would carry further political complications.Democrats immediate denounced McConnell’s move as hypocritical, pointing out that he refused to call hearings for Merrick Garland, Obama’s pick, 237 days before the 2016 election. The 2020 election is 46 days away.Battle Heats Up Over Justice Ginsburg’s ReplacementDeath of the liberal justice gives President Donald Trump an opportunity to add another conservative to the bench, shifting the court’s ideological balanceSenate Democratic leader Charles Schumer, in a tweet, echoed word for word what McConnell said in 2016 about the Garland nomination: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”Trump said last month that he would “absolutely” try to fill a vacancy if one came up before the end of his first term. “I would move quickly, ” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “Why not? I mean, they would. The Democrats would if they were in this position.”Trump last week added 20 names to his list of candidates he’s pledged to choose from if he has future vacancies to fill. He contrasted his list with unnamed “radical justices” he claimed Biden would nominate who would “fundamentally transform America without a single vote of Congress.”Trump released a similar list in 2016 in a bid to win over conservative and evangelical voters who had doubts about his conservative credentials. Among those on his current list: Sens. Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton, former Solicitor General Noel Francisco and Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago, long a favorite of conservatives.The average number of days to confirm a justice, according to the Congressional Research Service, is 69, which would be after the election. But some Republicans quickly noted that Ginsburg was confirmed in just 42 days.Four GOP defections could defeat a nomination, while a tie vote could be broken by Vice President Mike Pence.Among the senators to watch are Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah and others.Collins is in a tight race for her own reelection, as are several other GOP senators, including Cory Gardner in Colorado. Murkowski and Romney have been critical of Trump and protective of the institution of the Senate.Some Republicans, including Collins and Murkowski, have suggested previously that hearings should wait if a seat were to open. And because the Arizona Senate race is a special election, that seat could be filled as early as November 30 — which would narrow the window for McConnell if the Democratic candidate, Mark Kelly, hangs onto his lead.In a note to his GOP colleagues Friday night, McConnell urged them to “keep their powder dry” and not rush to declare a position on whether a Trump nominee should get a vote this year.“For those of you who are unsure how to answer, or for those inclined to oppose giving a nominee a vote, I urge you all to keep your powder dry,” McConnell wrote. “This is not the time to prematurely lock yourselves into a position you may later regret.”McConnell argued that there would be enough time to fill the vacancy and he restated his argument that the 2016 Senate precedent — in which a GOP-held Senate blocked Obama’s election-year nomination — did not establish a rule that applies to the Ginsburg case. Under McConnell, the Senate changed the confirmation rules to allow for a simple majority.Obama called for Republicans to wait, saying “a basic principle of the law – and of everyday fairness – is that we apply rules with consistency and not based on what’s convenient or advantageous in the moment.”One difference from 2016 is that, despite the vacancy resulting from Ginsburg’s death, conservatives have a working majority of five justices on a range of issues. When Antonin Scalia died four years ago, the court was divided between four liberals and four conservatives.The next pick could shape important decisions, including on abortion rights, as well as any legal challenges that may stem from the 2020 election. The 2018 hearings on Trump’s second pick, now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, turned into a bitter partisan battle after sexual assault allegations were made.Biden has promised to nominate a Black woman to the high court if given the chance. He has said he’s also working on a list of potential nominees, but the campaign has given no indication that it will release names before the election. 
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