WASHINGTON — Over and over, Amy Coney Barrett said she’d be her own judge if confirmed to the Supreme Court. But she was careful in two long days of Senate testimony not to take on the president who nominated her, and she sought to create distance between herself and past positions, writings on controversial subjects and even her late mentor.
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Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court to take the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seems inevitable, as even some Senate Democrats acknowledged in Senate hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday. The shift would cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the court and would be the most pronounced ideological change in 30 years, from the liberal icon to the conservative appeals court judge.
The 48-year-old judge skipped past Democrats' pressing questions about ensuring the date of next month’s election or preventing voter intimidation, both set in federal law, and the peaceful transfer of presidential power. She also refused to express her view on whether the president can pardon himself. “It’s not one that I can offer a view,” she said in response to a question Wednesday from Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont.
Democrats raised those questions because President Donald Trump has done so himself.
Barrett presented herself Wednesday in her final round of Senate confirmation questioning as a judge with a conservative approach and deeply held personal and religious beliefs but committed to keeping an open mind in rulings on the court.
Senate Republicans championed Trump’s pick as an originalist who adheres to a strict reading of the Constitution. Doubtful Democrats dug deeper into the judge’s approach to health care, abortion, racial equity and voting rights, but they are running out of time to stop her quick confirmation.
The conservative late Justice Antonin Scalia was considered a mentor of Barrett’s, but she is her own judge, she said.
“When I said that Justice Scalia’s philosophy is mine, too, I certainly didn’t mean to say that every sentence that came out of Justice Scalia’s mouth or every sentence that he wrote is one that I would agree with,” Barrett told the Senate Judiciary Committee,
The judge was responding to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the panel, who asked whether she agreed with Scalia’s view that the civil rights era Voting Rights Act was a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” Barrett said Scalia’s approach — “originalism and texturalism” — is hers as well. But without discussing the specifics of that case, she called the Voting Rights Act a “triumph in the civil rights movement.”
Earlier Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said, “You’re not aware of any effort to go back to the good old days of segregation by a legislative body” during the hearing, according to reporter Shannon Watts.
Graham, the committee chairman, opened the final day of Barrett’s testimony praising Trump’s nominee as an “unashamedly pro-life” conservative who is making history as a role model for other women.
Her nomination to replace Ginsburg has ground other legislative business to a halt as Republicans excited by the prospect of locking in a 6-3 conservative court majority race to confirm her over Democratic objections before Election Day.
“She’s going to the court,” Graham said. “This is the first time in American history that we’ve nominated a woman who’s unashamedly pro-life and embraces her faith without apology.”
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois agreed Barrett is making history — but as the first nominee considered so close to a presidential election, tapped to fulfill the president’s public quest to install a ninth justice in time to undo the Affordable Care Act in a case heading to the court Nov. 10.
Durbin called Trump’s intent to dismantle the health care law a cloud — “an orange cloud” — over her nomination, a political slam at the president’s tan.
“They need that ninth justice, that’s why it has to be hurried,” Durbin said.
Barrett’s nomination has been the focus at a Capitol mostly shut down by COVID-19 protocols. The health care debate has been central to the week’s hearings, as Americans struggle during the pandemic, drawing a sharp exchange among senators at one point.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, scoffed that few Democratic senators attended the hearing. Durbin retorted that health risks left many senators monitoring from their offices rather than convening as a group. Two GOP senators who tested positive for COVID-19 after attending Barrett’s nomination at the White House now say they are symptom-free and attended in person.
As Democrats probed Barrett’s views, Durbin asked if her strict adherence to originalism means a president could not “unilaterally deny the right to vote” based on race, noting restrictions on mail-in ballots being erected in several states before Nov. 3.
She agreed there are “many laws” that protect the right to vote, including the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, but stopped short of a blanket statement: “I really can’t say anything more.”
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