Amy Coney Barrett closed her opening remarks by pledging “to faithfully and impartially discharge my duties to the American people” as a Supreme Court justice.
She thanked the people that reached out with messages of support after she was nominated by President Trump.
Here’s how she closed her remarks:
Senate Democrats were united in driving home one message in the opening day of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing that her confirmation could threaten the future of the Affordable Care Act.
In a series of opening statements Monday, Democrats stuck to a script that was crafted by members of leadership and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden weeks ago, a message that Democrats hope will win them political support at the polls even if it cannot keep Barrett off the bench.
Every single Democrat on the committee brought with them a photograph and a story of at least one constituent for whom the ACA had made a difference.
“Children like Myka,” Harris said—speaking about an 11-year-old Southern California girl who Harris showed in a photo next to her.
Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, talked about constituents “Merritt and Michelle.”
“They know what a future without the ACA looks like. It looks like 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions — from cancer survivors to people with disabilities — being charged more or denied coverage completely. It looks like 20 million people losing their access to potentially life-saving care in the middle of a pandemic that has killed over 214,000 Americans,” Booker said.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said people in his state are afraid of what Barrett’s confirmation could mean for health care.
“They’re scared, Judge Barrett. They’re scared that your confirmation would rip from them the very healthcare protections that millions of Americans have fought to maintain, and which Congress has repeatedly rejected eliminating,” Leahy said.
An aide to the committee told CNN that after multiple member-level discussions, members of the committee agreed that not only health care, but the personal stories of people across the country would be the most effective strategy for day one.
In her opening statement at her confirmation hearing, Judge Amy Coney Barrett said the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s approach to law shaped her and that policy choices should be left to the American people’s representatives in her view.
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin explained how this translate for issues like gay marriage and abortion. Here’s what he said:
He added: “But people should understand, that’s what it means in the real world. It is not just boilerplate. It has real political content.”
In her remarks to the House Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett described the process she uses when considering arguments and writing opinions. Barrett said she plans to use the same standard if confirmed to the highest court.
Here’s what she told lawmakers:
Despite the sacrifices that would come to her family, Barrett said she was “deeply honored” by President Trump’s nomination, and accepted because she believes “deeply in the rule of law and the place of the Supreme Court in our nation.”
She added that she believes Americans of “all backgrounds deserve an independent Supreme Court that interprets our Constitution and laws as they are written.”
“And I believe I can serve my country by playing that role,” Barrett said.
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett praised the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for opening doors, even though the two women are ideological opposites.
“I come before this Committee with humility about the responsibility I have been asked to undertake, and with appreciation for those who came before me,” Barrett told lawmakers.
“When I was 21 years old and just beginning my career, Ruth Bader Ginsburg sat in this seat,” Barrett continued.
The Supreme Court nominee said it would be “the honor of a lifetime” to serve on the highest court, and she highlighted the “new perspectives” she could bring to the bench, including being the the first mother of school-age children to serve on the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s opening statement focused on how her mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, influenced her career and the opportunity to be nominated to the Supreme Court.
Barrett said Scalia taught her “more than just law” and he was “devoted to his family, resolute in his beliefs, and fearless of criticism.”
Throughout her legal career, Barrett said she resolved to maintain the same perspective as Scalia.
“There is a tendency in our profession to treat the practice of law as all-consuming, while losing sight of everything else. But that makes for a shallow and unfulfilling life,” Barrett said.
Barrett, the mother of seven children, also used her remarks to describe her connection and dedication to her family.
“I am used to being in a group of nine—my family. Nothing is more important to me, and I am so proud to have them behind me,” she said.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, was just sworn in at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing.
She’s now delivering her opening statement before the committee.
Senators on the Judiciary Committee this morning delivered their opening statements to kick off the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
Barrett will soon give her own opening remarks. If you’re just reading in now, here are the key moments from the hearing:
Sen. Kamala Harris slammed Senate GOP members for pushing through the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett as an effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act through the Supreme Court.
Harris emphasized that President Trump and Republican members of Congress were unable to repeal the law, despite their many efforts, and doing so through the Supreme Court is going against what the American people want.
“That’s why President Trump promised to only nominate judges who will get rid of the Affordable Care Act,” Harris said.
Harris added that the rush from Republicans to push through Barrett before the election is “to ensure they can strip away the protections” of the ACA when the Supreme Court takes up the case on Nov. 10.
Read Harris’ full prepared opening statement here.
Watch here:
Sen. Kamala Harris said the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Judge Amy Coney Barrett should have been postponed because of coronavirus concerns, saying the committee has not taken enough precautions to keep people safe.
She said not postponing the confirmation hearing puts people at risk and pauses talks about additional coronavirus relief funding.
“This hearing should have been postponed,” Harris said. “The decision to hold this hearing now is reckless and places facilities workers, janitorial staff and congressional aides and Capitol Police at risk. Not to mention while tens of millions of Americans are struggling to pay their bills, the Senate should be prioritizing coronavirus relief and providing financial support to those families,” she said.
Harris said continuing with the hearing shows that “Republicans have made it crystal clear that rushing a Supreme Court nomination is more important than helping and supporting the American people who are suffering from a deadly pandemic and economic crisis.”
“Their priorities are not the American people’s priorities,” she added.
Watch:
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, responded to President Trump’s tweet about skipping the confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett and moving straight to a vote.
“With all due respect to the President, the committee is following the traditions of the committee,” Graham told reporters, which allows for opening statements from members and questioning of the nominee.
Graham said, “We will proceed forward in the way that we have in the past.”
Trump on Twitter this morning said: “The Republicans are giving the Democrats a great deal of time, which is not mandated, to make their self serving statements relative to our great new future Supreme Court Justice. Personally, I would pull back, approve, and go for STIMULUS for the people!!!”
When asked by CNN’s Manu Raju if he thinks members should be tested for Covid-19, Graham replied, “I don’t know what it’s like at CNN, but you can’t demand that all of your colleagues be tested before you go to work if there is no reason.”
The senator said that he was tested “a week ago Friday” and that he feels fine.
In perhaps the most heated statements so far in today’s hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, attacked Democrats for what he perceived to be veiled attacks on Amy Coney Barrett’s Catholicism — something he called a “pattern and practice of religious bigotry.”
But in reality, today it has been Republicans, not Democrats who have referred to her religion. As for Barrett, she plans to nod to it in her opening statement where she will say that she believes in the power of prayer.
Hawley specifically pointed to Barrett’s confirmation hearing from 2017 when top-ranked Democratic member Sen. Dianne Feinstein pressed her on her writing about faith and the law. In a tense exchange, the Democratic senator questioned whether the judicial nominee could separate her Catholic views from her legal opinions.
“The conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you,” Feinstein pointedly said. “And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for years in this county.”
The exchange invigorated and emboldened conservatives who said she had been a victim of anti-Catholic bias.
Today Hawley said, “When you tell somebody that they’re too Catholic to be on the bench, when you tell them they’re going to be a Catholic judge, not an American judge, that’s bigotry,” he said.
“The pattern and practice of bigotry from members of this committee must stop,” he said, adding, “And I would expect that it be renounced.”
Other Republicans, Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Ben Sasse, have talked about religion.
But Democrats like Sen. Chris Coons have said that they will concentrate not on religious liberty but on what she has written.
The majority of the Supreme Court now is Catholic.
Watch:
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is back after a short recess, and Sen. Kamala Harris is set to deliver her opening statement soon remotely from her Senate office.
Close allies of the California senator cautioned that viewers tuning in shouldn’t expect those kind of fireworks from the vice presidential candidate.
This time, Harris is playing a much more complex dual role, a Judiciary Committee member valued by her party for her courtroom skills, but also the running mate of a Democratic presidential nominee who has condemned the divisive, angry politics of Washington and is promising to be a president to people all political persuasions.
Instead, advisers say, Harris, along with her fellow Democrats on the committee, will keep the focus on health care and what Barrett’s confirmation could mean for the future of the Affordable Care Act.
Read more here.
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is in a short minute break. They hearing is expected to resume at 12:20 p.m. ET.
When members return, they will continue with their opening statements. Barrett will then be sworn in by Chair Lindsey Graham, and she will deliver her opening statement to the committee.
So far in the hearing, partisan battle lines have been clearly drawn. In opening speeches, Republican senators praised Barrett’s judicial qualifications in glowing terms and emphasized her capability as a working mom, while Democrats warned that health care protections and the Affordable Care Act are at stake if the confirmation succeeds.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican, described Barrett as “in a category of excellence,” saying that she is “highly respected” and “widely-admired for her integrity.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, used his opening statement in today’s hearing to urge Judge Amy Coney Barrett to sit out any Supreme Court election cases involving President Trump.
Blumenthal told Barrett he is “really deeply concerned” that the Supreme Court is “losing the trust and respect of the American people.”
“The American people follow the Supreme Court’s commands, even when they disagree, because they respect its authority. And now, President Trump and the Republican senators are eroding, indeed destroying, that legitimacy. They’ve stripped the American people of their say in this process, simply to confirm a justice who will strike down in court, legislate from the bench, what they can’t repeal in congress,” he said.
Some context: Democratic senators are pressing Barrett to promise to sit out any Supreme Court election dispute between Trump and former vice president Joe Biden.
Barrett has eluded their requests and made no commitment. Yet with controversies over state ballot practices escalating and the possibility of a replay of the 2000 Bush v. Gore ordeal in the air, the topic is sure to surface at Barrett’s Senate confirmation hearings next week.
Trump has pointed to the November 3 election as a reason for seeking swift Senate confirmation of Barrett, a federal appeals court judge who would be his third appointee to the nine-member bench. The Republican incumbent has said he believes the Supreme Court could ultimately decide whether he is the victor over Biden.
Watch:
There’s an incongruity in senators’ declarations of the importance of the Supreme Court when there’s a certain emptiness to the hearings so far.
As Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham said, Republicans have the votes to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Both sides are going through the motions.
Republicans are not going to pin down the President’s nominee, and Democrats have made clear they will refer to the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Affordable Care Act yet avoid any strong confrontation with Barrett.
Supreme Court confirmation hearings have long been known for elusive answers, this one could be marked by weak, watered down questions, too.
This hearing also seems to have a disproportionate number of “regular American” references, as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is doing now by brining up Laura, a Rhode Island resident with preexisting conditions, who was protected by the Affordable Care Act. Democrats want to personalize this hearing, bring it home to people watching.
It’s unlikely to change the Senate vote, but it is a reminder for the electorate that President Trump is at the Supreme Court trying to kill the entire ACA.
Keying off of Sen. Ben Sasse about the importance of having another “originalist” on the Supreme Court, we know where originalists will go in practical terms, for better or for worse.
We have the record of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom Judge Amy Coney Barrett once served as a law clerk.
His originalist and textualist views led him to dissent when the majority declared a right to same-sex marriage, to vote consistently against abortion rights, and to vote to strike down the Affordable Care Act.
An originalist believes the Constitution should be interpreted the way its framers in the 18th century understood it. Scalia believed the Constitution brought gun rights under the Second Amendment. He broadly dissented on gay rights and reproductive rights, not just against Obergefell and same-sex marriage.
Sen. Mike Lee, a former clerk to Justice Samuel Alito, had spent much of his time talking in today’s hearing about how a judge should not stray into policy decisions, but instead, limit herself or himself to issues such as the dormant commerce clause.
Lee spoke at the hearing in-person today, despite testing positive for Covid-19 11 days ago.
When Lee finished, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham spoke up and cracked a joke.
“Definitely some good news,” he said. “ Senator Lee’s enthusiasm for the dormant commerce clause convinces me you have made a full recovery.” He then turned to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse for his 10 minutes.
Whitehouse immediately stepped in calling the hearing an “irresponsible botch” and he said that it was a “microcosm of Trump’s dangerous ineptitude in dealing with the Covid pandemic.”
Whitehouse said it was Graham’s job to see to the committee’s safety, and yet he doesn’t now “who has been tested, who should be tested , who is a danger, what contact tracing has been done on infected and exposed senators and staff.”
Some context: Lee, a Republican from Utah who tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this month, released a letter he received on Monday from the Attending Physician of the United States Congress Dr. Brian Monahan saying that he no longer had to isolate. Lee was seen working in the committee room without a mask.
Watch:
Sen. Amy Klobuchar stressed the need to protect the Affordable Car Act in her opening statement during today’s hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
She accused Republicans of rushing to confirm Barrett — who once tried to puncture arguments favoring Obamacare — to the bench not only before the court takes up a new case about the Affordable Care Act, but also during the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
Klobuchar said the pandemic is “personal” to the families foe the more than 210,000 Americans who have died from the virus — and to the millions more who have been diagnosed with Covid-19. She then explained how both her 92-year-old father and her husband were diagnosed with coronavirus during the pandemic.
“He ended up in the hospital for a week on oxygen with severe pneumonia,” she said of her husband.
Klobuchar added that her father contracted the virus in his nursing home, and she wasn’t allowed to visit him inside.
“I stood there outside his window in a mask, and he looked so small and confused,” she said. “I thought it was going to be the last time that I saw him. He miraculously survived.”
Watch:
Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah who tested positive for Covid-19 eleven days ago, is working in the committee room without a mask.
He gave his opening statement during Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing maskless, and described how the Supreme Court nomination process has become “political.”
“We have allowed for the politicization of the one branch of government that is not political,” he said.
Lee said this morning he was cleared by his physician.
He also released a letter he received on Monday from the Attending Physician of the United States Congress Dr. Brian Monahan saying that he no longer had to isolate.
“Based upon current CDC guidelines, you have met criteria to end COVID-19 isolation for those with mild to moderate disease. Specifically, it has been greater than 10 days since symptom onset, you have had no fever in absence of fever reducing medication for at least 24 hours, and your other symptoms have improved,” the letter said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Thom Tillis, who was also diagnosed with the virus after attending Barrett’s Rose Garden announcement earlier this month, is attending the hearing virtually. He expects to be in person later this week.
