Senate date for Judge Barrett
THE REPUBLICAN-led US Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday scheduled an October 22 vote to advance Conservative appellate Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court to the full Senate for confirmation, rejecting Democratic objections.
The last day of the four-day confirmation hearing for US President Donald Trump’s nominee began with committee Democrats protesting what they called the needlessly rushed nature of proceedings and complaining Judge Barrett sidestepped questions about presidential powers, abortion, voting rights and Obamacare.
Trump has asked the Senate, controlled by his fellow Republicans, to confirm Judge Barrett before the November 3 election. He has said he expects the court to decide the election’s outcome.
She answered questions from senators during marathon sessions.
The committee was hearing from outside experts yesterday including two from the American Bar Association, which deemed her “well qualified” for the job. Judge Barrett was not present.
Her confirmation to the lifetime post – a virtual certainty given that Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate
majority – would shift the Supreme Court further right with a 6-3 conservative majority. Judge Barrett is Trump’s third nominee to the high court.
Senator Kamala Harris, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate, said that the confirmation proceedings “lack legitimacy” because Americans want the winner of the presidential election to decide who fills the court’s vacancy after the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The committee yesterday was hearing from four witnesses in support of Judge Barrett’s confirmation, and four against. The bar association, a non-partisan national lawyers’ group, will explain its positive evaluation of her qualifications related to “integrity, professional competence, and judicial temperament”.
Judge Barrett, if confirmed, could
be on the Supreme Court in time to participate in a case on November 10 in which Trump and Republican-led states are seeking to invalidate the 2010 Obamacare law formally called the Affordable Care Act.
Judge Barrett, 48, a devout Catholic, said the landmark 1973 Roe versus Wade ruling that legalised abortion nationwide was not a “super-precedent” that could not be overturned.
She drew scrutiny when she said it was an “open question” whether Trump could pardon himself, while adding the Supreme Court “can’t control” whether a president obeys its decisions.
She also told the committee that she could not opine on whether presidents should commit to peaceful transfers of power if they lose an election. Trump has refused to do so.