Amy Coney Barrett says cases won't be judged based on personal view as Dems fear SCOTUS balance will tilt right
All eyes will be on the Senate Judiciary Committee starting Monday, October 12, as Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, will face her confirmation hearings. The four-day hearing event is expected to intensify the battle lines that have been drawn between the Republicans controlling the Senate and opposition Democrats.
The GOP has been accused of showing double standards over backing Trump’s nomination to the apex court to find a replacement for the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg as it was the same party that had spoken against an outgoing administration picking a Supreme Court judge in 2016 after Justice Antonin Scalia passed away. The Democrats are also apprehensive that the 48-year-old Barrett, who is currently the judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, will decisively tilt the SC in favor of the conservatives (6-3) and help strike down landmark rulings like Roe v. Wade (1973). Though Trump recently tried to convince his critics, saying Barrett would not do anything of that sort, his Democratic rival Joe Biden said he would try to get the Roe verdict codified into the law of the land if Barrett tried to overturn the ruling backing women’s abortion rights.
Barrett says she has done 'utmost' to 'reach result required by law'
As the liberals’ charges against Barrett mount, she is set to tell the senators during her hearing that she will approach cases based on the law and not on her personal takes. Barrett, a devout Catholic who is known for opposing abortion rights, will say that courts “should not try” to make policies, according to her opening remarks that were obtained by media outlets on Sunday, October 11.
Barrett will also say she has done her “utmost” to “reach the result required by the law” irrespective of her personal preferences in her current position. The Democratic members of the Senate, where the party is in minority, are expected to grill the judge on this point.
If Barrett gets the confirmation, she will be the third nominee of President Trump to the Supreme Court in his first term -- after Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. If the Senate confirms Barrett’s nomination, the GOP would end up negating the rule of its own late leader Strom Thurmond who had held in the past that in years having presidential elections, the Senate should stop dealing with judicial nominations. In 2016, the GOP did not agree to give Merrick Garland, former President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court succeeded Scalia, a hearing citing the same reason. But when senior Senate leaders like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham, who backed the Thurmond rule four years ago, defied it this time, they faced a massive backlash from the Democrats who accused them of hypocrisy.
Trump went ahead with nominating Barrett on September 26, a week after RBG’s death, and the Senate leaders pushed for her the confirmation hearings before the November 3 election, which according to many observers is to ensure that the Supreme Court’s verdict goes in Trump’s favor in case the upcoming elections lands at its door. The GOP is also rushing because if Trump loses the election and the Democrats flip the Senate, her appointment is likely to face roadblocks.