The confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, continued Wednesday with seven more hours of questioning.
Senate Republicans are keeping up their push for a final vote before Election Day despite Democratic calls to let voters decide who should pick a new justice.
Trump nominated Barrett to fill the seat left open by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The four days of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, overseen by Chairman Lindsey Graham, are unprecedented, with some members participating virtually and in-person. Barrett has appeared at the witness table to face questions for 19 hours total over two days.
Hearings begin at 9 a.m. each day and will be live streamed on ABC News Live.
The question and answer portion began Tuesday with Democrats arguing protections from landmark cases on health care and same-sex marriage are at risk with Barrett's nomination, while Republicans afforded her opportunities to defend her impartiality as a judge.
Barrett, 48, was a law clerk to conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and follows his originalist interpretation of the Constitution. She practiced law at a Washington firm for two years before returning to her alma mater, Notre Dame Law School, to teach. She was nominated by Trump in 2017 to the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and confirmed by the Senate in a 55-43 vote.
The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her legacy is a major presence at the confirmation hearing.
Both Republicans and Democrats have invoked the late justice in their questioning -- but her presence was shown in more visual ways, too.
For the third day in a row, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, sported a mask with images of the late icon.
Sen. Mazi Hirono wears a Ruth Bader Ginsburg-themed face mask on the third day of Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Oct. 14, 2020, in Washington.
Ken Cedeno/Pool via Getty Images
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., had placed a photo of Ginsburg in front of him for his questioning.
People protest for and against the confirmation of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Oct. 14, 2020.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Not far outside the committee room on Capitol Hill, people for and against Barrett’s nomination protested outside the Supreme Court building, with many holding signs nodding to her signature collar.
Oct 14, 2020, 3:49 PM EDT
Hearing resumes following second technical glitch, Barrett says it would have been ‘cowardly’ to turn nomination down
After a second audio issue, the hearings resumed with Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina questioning Barrett.
Setting the stakes of her highly-publicized nomination, Tillis asked Barrett why she would even agree to the Supreme Court confirmation process.
"Why are you doing this, Judge Barrett?" he asked. "Why not just say thanks, but no thanks, leave it for somebody else?"
"Well, as I said to Senator Graham yesterday, and I think this was part of the conversation that you and I had, that this is a very difficult process. Actually, I think I used the word 'excruciating,'" Barrett began.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies on the third day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on Oct. 14, 2020.
Greg Nash/Pool via Getty Images
“And so one might wonder why any sane person would undertake that risk and that task unless it was for the sake of something good. And as I said yesterday to Senator Graham, I do think the rule of law and its importance in the United States, and I do think the rule of the Supreme Court is important. It's a great good," she said.
Barrett went on to say the same difficulty will be present for any nominee, so there was no good reason to turn the job down in her eyes.
“And so for me to say, you know, I'm not willing to undertake it, even though I think this is something important, would be a little cowardly, and I wouldn't be answering the call to serve my country in the way that I was asked,” Barrett said.
She added that her children have faced some difficulty with the process, but they’re part of the reason she went through with it.
"Because if we are to protect our institutions and protect the freedoms and protect the rule of law that's the basis for this society and the freedom that we all enjoy, if we want that for our children and our children's children, then we need to participate in that work," she said.
Oct 14, 2020, 3:36 PM EDT
Barrett defends herself when pressed on why she won't comment on same-sex marriage case
In a testy line of questioning on protections for LGBT Americans, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., pressed Barrett to say whether she agreed that Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage, was a sound decision.
While Barrett would say Brown v. Board of Education, which deemed segregation in public schools unconstitutional, and Loving v. Virginia, which did the same for laws banning interracial marriage, were clearly-established precedents, she wouldn’t explicitly say the same about Obergefell.
"Your honor, think of how you would feel as a gay or lesbian American to feel that you cannot answer whether the government can make it a crime for them to have that relationship, whether the government can allow people who are happily married to be overturned," Blumenthal said.
"Well, you are suggesting that I am going to overturn, and you are pushing me to violate the cannons of ethics, and I will not do that,” Barrett interjected, repeating that she should not suggest agreement or disagreement with precedents of the Supreme Court.
Blumenthal said, in turn, Americans have the right to know her legal positions on the cases he presented.
"I am surprised and I think that a lot of Americans will be scared that the people they want to marry could have marriage equality cut back and in an America where I would not want to live," he said.
"Well, senator to suggest that is the kind of America that I want to create is not based in any facts of my record and that quote that you read to me from the article talked about it being par for the course for those questions to be asked, but it did not say about whether it is appropriate for the nominees to answer it," Barrett replied.
On Tuesday, Barrett apologized to the LGBT community for using the term "sexual preference" instead of "sexual orientation."
Oct 14, 2020, 2:13 PM EDT
GOP senators make point of describing Barrett as 'pro-life'
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he wanted to put a "finer point" on something said earlier by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. -- a point also made by Chairman Graham.
Sen. Ben Sasse speaks during the third day of Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 14, 2020.
Patrick Semansky/Pool via Reuters
"I want to agree with the chairman that I think there's nothing wrong with confirming to the Supreme Court of the United States a devout Catholic, pro-life Christian. And it would be my privilege to vote for you," Hawley said.
On each occasion, Barrett did not object the description of her as anti-abortion.
In a lighter moment, then Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., took over for his line of questioning and said he hopes Barrett got some rest since the long day Tuesday.
"I did have a glass of wine," Barrett offered. "I'll tell you that I needed that, at the end of the day."
"Well, let me just say on that kind of point you have a right to remain silent," Blumenthal joked.
