Barrett promises an ‘open mind’ on Obamacare
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Wednesday sought to allay fears raised by Democrats at her Senate confirmation hearing that she would be an automatic vote to strike down the Obamacare health care law, promising an “open mind” in approaching the case.
On the third day of her fourday hearing, she sidestepped a question on whether a president can issue a pardon to himself, while the judiciary committee’s Republican chairman lauded her as “unashamedly pro-life” even as Democrats worry she could vote to overturn the 1973 ruling legalising abortion nationwide.
Barrett, a conservative federal appellate judge, is the Republican president’s third selection for a lifetime job on the top US judicial body. Trump has asked the Senate, controlled by his fellow Republicans, to confirm her before the November 3 presidential election.
Barrett could be on the top court for November 10 arguments in a challenge by Trump and Republican-led states to the 2010 law, formally called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), that has helped millions of Americans obtain medical coverage and includes protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
In response to Democratic suggestions that she would vote to strike down the entire law down if one part is found to be unlawful, Barrett said that if a statute can be saved, it is a judge’s duty to do so.
Democrats have said Barrett’s confirmation would threaten health care for millions of Americans. They also have said the winner of the presidential election should get to fill the court’s vacancy left by the death of justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Barrett has declined to say whether she would recuse herself from the Obamacare case. Barrett said the case centres on a different legal issue than two previous Supreme Court rulings that upheld Obamacare that she has criticised.
Barrett has sidestepped questions on contentious social issues including abortion, which as a devout Catholic, she personally opposes.