Jared Hameloth
News Editor

This past Saturday, the U.S. Senate voted 50-48 in favor of confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

This vote comes after a week-long investigation into Dr. Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault. On Sept. 27, both Ford and Kavanaugh testified about the accusations to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Afterwards, the committee asked President Trump to order an FBI investigation into the allegations; Trump limited the investigation to one week. A timeline of the events surrounding the hearing and investigation can be found here.

On Oct. 4, the FBI sent their full report to the committee, where the senators had one day to review the documents before they voted 51-49 to advance to the final vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation. The senate confirmed Kavanaugh in the final vote just before 4 p.m. on Oct. 6.

The senators voted almost directly down party lines, with few exceptions. The only Democrat to vote “yes” for the confirmation was Joe Manchin III of West Virginia. Two Republicans did not vote to confirm Kavanaugh: Steve Daines of Montana was absent for the vote, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted “present,” which neither counts for a “yes” or “no” vote.

PA Senators Bob Casey (D) and Pat Toomey (R) voted with their parties, “no” and “yes” respectively.