Barrett to draw on family, faith
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett vows to be a justice “fearless of criticism” as a divided Senate charges ahead with confirmation hearings on President Donald Trump’s pick to cement a conservative court majority before ElectionDay.
Barrett, a federal appeals court judge, draws on faith and family in her prepared opening remarks for the hearings, which beginMonday as the country is in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic. She says courts “should not try” to make policy, but leave those decisions to the government’s political branches. She believes she would bring “a few new perspectives” as the first mother of schoolage children on the ninemember court.
Trump chose the 48year-old judge after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon.
“I have been nominated to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat, but no one will ever take her place,” Barrett says in her remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Associated Press obtained a copy of her statement Sunday.
Barrett says she has resolved tomaintain the same perspective as her mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was “devoted to his family, resolute in his beliefs, and fearless of criticism.”
Republicans who control the Senate are moving at a breakneck pace to seat Barrett before the Nov. 3 election, in time to hear a high-profile challenge to the Affordable CareAct and any election-related challenges thatmay followthe voting.
Another reason for moving quickly: It’s unclear whether the election results would make it harder to confirm Barrett before the end of the year if Democrat Joe Biden were to win the White House and Democrats were to gain seats in the Senate.
California Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nomineewhois also a committee member, plans to participate remotely from her Senate office due to coronavirus concerns, her spokesman said Sunday.
Harris and other key Democrats said the hearings should not move forward without plans to test people attending, including senators, for coronavirus.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has “an obligation to be tested” for COVID-19 before the hearing begins because he has been exposed to those with the disease.
Graham told Fox News Channel’s “SundayMorning Futures” that he took a test lastweek.
“I am negative,” he said, adding that “anybody that has a concern about showing up can virtually interview Judge Barrett.”
The hearings are taking place less than amonth after the death of Ginsburg gave Trump the chance to entrench a conservative majority on the court with his third justice.
Democrats have pressed in vain to delay the hearings, first because of the proximity to the election and the virus threat. No Supreme Court has ever been confirmed so close to a presidential election.