Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett returns to Capitol Hill for a third day of confirmation hearings as senators dig deeper into the c...
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett returns to Capitol Hill for a third day of confirmation hearings as senators dig deeper into the conservative judge's outlook on abortion, health care and a potentially disputed presidential election - the Democrats running out of time to stop Republicans pushing her quick confirmation.
Today's session is set to be Barrett's last before the Senate Judiciary Committee. She has been batting away questions in long and lively exchanges, insisting she would bring no personal agenda to the court but decide cases 'as they come.'
Her nomination by President Donald Trump to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has ground other legislative business to a halt as Republicans excited by the prospect of locking in a 6-3 conservative court majority race to confirm her over Democratic objections before Election Day.
'We're going to fill this vacancy,' Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the committee chairman, said late Tuesday after a nearly 12-hour session.
Graham said he appreciated that Trump had nominated a judge 'who's unabashedly pro-life, somebody who embraces their faith, but somebody who understands the difference between their personal views and judging.'
Barrett's nomination has been the focus at a Capitol mostly shut down by COVID-19 protocols, frustrating Democrats who are virtually powerless to stop a judge from confirmation. They warn she will be seated on the court in time to cast a vote to undo the Affordable Care Act next month, causing millions of Americans to lose coverage during a pandemic.
Nominee: Amy Coney Barrett, on the first of two days of questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee, faced scrutiny from Democrats over abortion, Obamacare, the outcome of the election and same-sex marriage
Remote questions: Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate made Obamacare and abortion rights the center of her questions for Coney Barrett
'People are fed up,' said Senator. Dick Durbin, criticizing GOP priorities in forcing the Senate action as the country suffers from the pandemic and Congress squabbles over approving additional economic aid.
The 48-year-old appellate court judge declared her conservative views in often colloquial language, but she refused many specifics yesterday. She aligns with the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative mentor, and declined to say whether she would recuse herself from any election-related cases involving Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
'Judges can't just wake up one day and say I have an agenda - I like guns, I hate guns, I like abortion, I hate abortion - and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world,' Barrett told the committee during its second day of hearings.
'It's not the law of Amy,' she said. 'It´s the law of the American people.'
Trump seemed pleased with her performance. 'I think Amy's doing incredibly well,' he said at the White House departing for a campaign rally.
Trump has said he wants a justice seated for any disputes arising from his heated campaign against Biden, but Barrett testified she has not spoken to Trump or his team about election cases. Pressed by Democrats, she skipped past questions about ensuring the date of the election or preventing voter intimidation, both set in federal law, and the peaceful transfer of presidential power. She declined to commit to recusing herself from any post-election cases without first consulting the other justices.
'I can't offer an opinion on recusal without short-circuiting that entire process,' she said.
A frustrated Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the panel, all but implored the nominee to be more specific about how she would handle landmark abortion cases, including Roe v. Wade and the follow-up Pennsylvania case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which confirmed it in large part.
'It's distressing not to get a good answer,' the U.S. senator from California told the judge.
Barrett was unmoved. 'I don't have an agenda to try to overrule Casey,' she said. 'I have an agenda to stick to the rule of law and decide cases as they come.'
She later declined to characterize the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion as a 'super-precedent' that must not be overturned.
Democrats had no such reticence.
'Let's not make any mistake about it,' said California Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, appearing remotely due to COVID concerns.
Allowing Trump to fill the seat with Barrett 'poses a threat to safe and legal abortion in our country,' Harris said.
She added: 'I would suggest that we not pretend that we don't know how this nominee views a woman's right to choose to make her own health care decisions.'
'Republicans are scrambling to confirm this nominee as fast as possible because they need one more Trump judge on the bench before November 10 to win and strike down the entire Affordable Care Act,' she said. 'This is not hyperbole. This is not a hypothetical situation. This is happening.'
She also connected a 2017 article by Barrett to Trump's nomination of her – in light of his own comments about taking down Roe.
'My question is how many months after you published that article did President Trump nominate you to be a judge on the Court of Appeals?' she asked.
Questions on contentious issues: Amy Coney Barrett was asked about her positions on Roe v. Wade, same-sex marriage, the Affordable Care Act and whether she would recuse herself from ruling on cases relating to the upcoming election but declibe to spell out any position on them
The Senate, led by Trump´s Republican allies, is pushing Barrett´s nomination to a quick vote before Nov. 3, and ahead of the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act, which the Supreme Court is to hear a week after the election. Democrats warn that she would be a vote to undo the 'Obamacare' law.
'I'm not hostile to the ACA,' Barrett told the senators.
The judge, accompanied by her family, described herself as taking a conservative, originalist approach to the Constitution. A former law professor, she told the senators that while she admires Scalia, she would bring her own approach.
'You would not be getting Justice Scalia, you would be getting Justice Barrett,' she declared.
Overall, Barrett's conservative views are at odds with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon.
Ginsburg offered a forthright defense of her position on abortion as a fundamental right for women when she was confirmed to the high court in 1993, while Barrett declined repeatedly to address whether she agrees, saying it was a 'hypothetical' and that she could be asked to rule on the issue.
Barrett would be Trump's third justice.
At yesterday's hearing, Barrett opened up about her decision to undergo the 'excruciating process' of accepting President Trump's nomination to the Supreme Court – telling senators she strives never to 'impose' her own choices on others.
She addressed her Catholic faith saying that she did not bring it to her rulings as a federal appeals judge and would not do so if she is confirmed to the high court, and said she had known that her faith and that of her family would be 'caricatured' as a result of being nominated.
'I have decided to pursue a career and have a large family. I have a multi-racial family. Our faith is important to us. They are my choices. I have never tried in my personal life to impose my choices,' she said. She also said her family owns a gun.
'We knew that our lives would be combed over for any negative detail, with he knew that our faith would be caricatured. We knew our family would be attacked.'
Underscoring the Republicans´ confidence, Graham set an initial committee vote on the nomination for Thursday, the last day of hearings, which would allow final approval by the full Senate by the end of the month.
Protesters rallied outside the Senate building, unable to come inside the hearing room.
Family arrival: Six of Amy Coney Barrett's children arrived just ahead of her for the hearing
'I want to be careful to say that if I'm confirmed, you would not be getting Justice Scalia. You would be getting Justice Barrett,' she distinguished
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