Amy Coney Barrett begins Supreme Court confirmation hearing
Here are highlights of how both sides set the stage for questioning.
The high-stakes confirmation hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, got underway Monday as Senate Republicans 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 by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The four days of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, overseen by chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, are unprecedented, with some members participating virtually and in-person. Barrett will appear at the witness table to face questions each day.
Hearings start at 9 a.m. each day and will be live streamed on ABC News Live.
Barrett, 48, a devout Roman Catholic, was a law clerk to conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, considers him her mentor 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 to the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May 2017 and confirmed by the Senate that October in a 55-43 vote.
Latest Headlines:
- Barrett makes opening statement focused on family, conservative judicial philosophy
- Harris claims Barrett will ‘undo the legacy’ of Ginsburg
- Booker says nomination is about overturning Roe v. Wade
- Blumenthal tells Barrett: 'You must recuse yourself' from any election-related cases
- Hawley claims Democrats show 'religious bigotry,' defends Barrett’s Catholic faith
Blackburn says Democrats should be more supportive of a ‘female legal superstar’
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., focused her remarks on the rhetoric around Barrett as a woman and mother, questioning why her Democratic colleagues aren’t more supportive of someone she called a “successful female legal superstar.”
“Given your track record, you would think that my colleagues would jump at the opportunity to support a successful female legal superstar, who is highly regarded by both her Democratic and Republican colleagues, and who is a working mom. But as today's increasingly paternalistic and frankly disrespectful arguments have shown, if they had it their way, only certain kinds of women would be allowed into this hearing room," Blackburn said.
“On that note, not so long ago in another hearing they scrutinized your commitment to your Catholic faith and tried to use that as a way to question your competency and your professionalism,” Blackburn said, referring to Judge Barrett’s confirmation hearing to a federal appeals court in 2017, though Barrett's faith has not yet been raised by Democrats in her Supreme Court nomination.
Blackburn, as several of her GOP colleagues before her had done, raised the Justice Kavanaugh hearings and deemed the sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh another effort “to delay and obstruct legitimate constitutionally sound confirmation hearing.”
“Let's not forget it was the Democrats who took an axe to the process in 2018 when they dropped last-minute, unsubstantiated sexual assault allegations against Justice Kavanaugh. We still don't have the full story about their level and manner of coordination with activists and mainstream media outlets, but what we do know is that they turned that confirmation into a circus.”
Harris claims Barrett will ‘undo the legacy’ of Ginsburg
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has the historic opportunity this week to question a Supreme Court nominee while on the ticket of a major political party. Appearing virtually, she began her opening statement by criticizing Senate Republicans for holding the hearing and disregarding, she said, the health and safety of Capitol staff.
“The decision to hold this hearing now is reckless and places the facility's workers, janitorial staff and congressional aides and Capitol police at risk, not to mention that while tens of millions of Americans are struggling to pay their bills,” Harris said. “The Senate should be prioritizing coronavirus relief and providing financial support to those families.”
Harris said if Republicans succeed with their nomination, they will likely eliminate protections for 135 million Americans with pre-existing conditions --without regard for the legacy of Justice Ginsburg.
"By replacing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with someone who will undo her legacy, President Trump is attempting to roll back Americans' rights for decades to come,” Harris said. “Every American must understand that with this nomination equal justice under law is at stake. Our voting rights are at stake. Workers' rights are at stake. Consumer rights are at stake. The right to a safe and legal abortion is at stake. And holding corporations accountable is at stake.”
After Harris wrapped, Barrett's children and sisters reentered the hearing room, in a sign that Barrett's opening statement isn't far off.
More on other key questions the court will consider this term can be found here.
Booker says nomination is about overturning Roe v. Wade
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said in his opening statement that Republicans are rushing through the process with the ultimate goal of overturning not just the Affordable Care Act but Roe v. Wade, calling the whole hearing “a charade.”
“President Trump has explicitly stated he would only put up Supreme Court nominees that would overturn Roe V. Wade. He said it clearly. We should believe him,” Booker began.
“We're here because in the middle of an ongoing election, Republicans have found a nominee in Judge Barrett, to do what they couldn't do, subvert the will of the American people and overturn the ACA and overturn Roe v. Wade,” Booker said. “That's what this is about.”
In an appeal across the aisle, Booker reminded, “If one of my colleagues will stand up on this committee, we will hold this over until after the election," before ripping into the process.
“It's not normal the senators are rushing through a confirmation hearing, violating their own words and their own statements, betraying the trust of the American people and their colleagues and failing to take in this hearing, the most basic safety protections to protect people around them, all to ensure that tens of millions of people will lose their health care when we're seven months into one of the worst public health crises in our country,” Booker concluded.
Ernst defends Barrett’s faith yet no Democrats have raised her religion in the hearing so far
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, facing a tight reelection fight, went after Democrats for what she called attacks on Judge Barrett’s Catholic faith -- as her colleague Sen. Hawley had done before -- yet no Democrats have raised her Catholic faith in the hearing so far.
“This week will be an opportunity to dig into your background further and understand more about your judicial philosophy,” Ernst said to Barrett. “But what your political opponents want to paint you as is a TV or cartoon version of a religious radical. A so-called 'handmaid' that feeds into the ridiculous stereotypes they set out to lambaste people of faith in America.”
“They are attacking you as a mom and a woman of faith because they cannot attack your qualifications,” she added.
Ernst, who has served in the Senate since 2015, also said, “It frustrates me and it frustrates my fellow Iowans that the Supreme Court has become a super legislature for a Congress that, frankly, won't come together and discuss the tough issues and do its job.”
Leahy hits on dangers of holding high-stakes hearing, says his constituents are ‘scared’ of Barrett's nomination
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., hit on the shame he said Republicans should feel as Barrett’s nomination ceremony took place just one week after the passing of Justice Ginsburg.
“We should not have had a nomination ceremony before Justice Ginsburg was even buried, while the nation was mourning her passing,” Leahy said. “We should not be here, holding that hearing just 16 days later when the committee has afforded itself three times as long to vet other nominees to the nation's highest court.”
Leahy also noted the number of Republicans he said have gone “back on their word” as they push the nomination through when millions of Americans have already voted just three weeks from a presidential election.
“Doing so requires literally half of the Senate, goes back on their word. Think of that for the Republican colleagues. Clearly half of the Senate had to break their word, contradicting every argument they've made for years, about the American people needing a voice during election year vacancies,” he continued.
Leahy, as did Feinstein, said in addition to the rushed nature of the nomination, his constituents are “scared” about the fate of the Affordable Care Act should Barrett be confirmed to the court.
“That is what weighs heavily on me as we begin these hearings and also weighs heavily on the minds of those I represent, and I have heard from them, as Justice Ginsburg's passing, they are scared, Judge Barrett,” Leahy said.
“They are scared that you will rip away the health care protections that millions of Americans ought to maintain and which Congress has repeatedly worked on eliminating. They're scared that the clock will be turned back to where women had no right to control their own bodies and when it was acceptable to discriminate against women in the workplace. They're scared that there is a time when we are facing the perilous impacts of climate change... And they're scared that your confirmation will result in the rolling back of voting rights, workers' rights, and the rights of the LGBTQ community to equal treatment," Leahy said.