Supreme Court should not 'set us back' to making reproductive rights 'criminal': Dem Senator

A key Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said that the next Supreme Court justice, like retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, should show independence and not "set us back" to when a woman became a criminal for exercising reproductive rights.

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar told ABC News "This Week" Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz in an exclusive interview Sunday, "We want someone that's not an ideologue on the bench."

Klobuchar went on to cite examples of Kennedy's voting with the more liberal members of the court, including on a 1992 case, "Planned Parenthood v. Casey," that upheld Roe v. Wade, and said the next justice should show similar independence.

“You want someone that's going to show that kind of independence, and is not going to set us back to a time when a woman was made a criminal just for exercising her own reproductive rights,” Klobuchar said on "This Week."

The Minnesota senator added that she would not support some of the potential nominees whose names have been floated by the Trump administration.

“A number of them are writing [opinions] where they go out of their way to try to make new law,” she said.

Raddatz asked Klobuchar about the call by some Democratic senators to delay any vote on Trump's eventual Supreme Court nominee until after the midterm elections in November.

Democrats calling for a delay cite Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusing in 2016 to hold a vote on President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court because it was an election year.

"Can you get the nominee to be delayed until after the midterms?" Raddatz said. "How can you really do that?"

Klobuchar responded, “Well procedurally, that’s going to be up to when the, the majority leader brings this forward, but we can make this case that this is ... precedent, in 2016, the Republicans took the position you shouldn’t vote on a nominee in an election year.”

"All we’re saying is you should let the people have a say in this critical position and have this vote after the election,” Klobuchar said.