I cannot wait to see what Sen. Whitehouse has in store for Judge Amy Coney Barrett today! It all starts at 9 a.m. ET.
We have Democrats grandstanding, throwing out conspiracy theories, mansplaining Barrett’s cases to her, and asking about hypothetical cases knowing Barrett cannot answer them.
So that means she must want to overturn it.
Barrett reminded the Senate that she spoke as an academic. She was a Notre Dame professor at the time:
Barrett, then a University of Notre Dame law professor, wrote in a 2017 law review essay, “Chief Justice Roberts pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute. He construed the penalty imposed on those without health insurance as a tax, which permitted him to sustain the statute as a valid exercise of the taxing power.”She continued, “Had he treated the payment as the statute did —as a penalty —he would have had to invalidate the statute as lying beyond Congress’s commerce power.”Democrats have argued during the confirmation hearings that Barrett’s criticisms of Roberts’ 2012 ruling to uphold Obamacare, which she made before she was appointed to the federal appeals bench in 2017, were a sign that she would try to overturn it.Barrett insisted that was not the case, saying she had no agenda when it came to the health care law. “I am not here on a mission to destroy the Affordable Care Act,” she said. “I’m just here to apply the law and adhere to the rule of law.”
Harris asked Barrett whether she agreed with Chief Justice John Roberts’ writing in the opinion that “voting discrimination still exists, no one doubts that.”Barrett would not engage on the question, saying it was one that could come before the court.“Sen. Harris I will not comment on what any justice said in an opinion, whether an opinion is right or wrong, or endorse that proposition,” Barrett said.When Harris asked her about it a second time, Barrett said, “I think racial discrimination still exists in the United States.”“I don’t mean to signal I disagree with the statement either, what I mean to say is I’m not going to express an opinion because these are very charged issues, they have been litigated in the courts, and so I will not engage on that question,” Barrett said.
You all know she cannot answer these.
Is this a Barrett hearing or one for the late Justice Scalia? They cannot stop bringing him up because Barrett clerked for him.
But I do not know why it is so hard for these senators to understand that Barrett will not answer questions about hypothetical cases.
Unlike hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Barrett’s hearing has gone smoothly:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) again praises the tone of the hearing so far, which has marked a sharp contrast from the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.In that hard-fought hearing, the outcome was uncertain, amid sexual-assault allegations that the nominee strenuously denied. Judge Amy Coney Barrett is expected to be confirmed, despite Democrats’ objections to nominating a justice this close to the election.”I think we’re on track,” Mr. Graham said, to hold the hearings “in a way that hopefully people will say even though you disagree, strongly, you’re not that disagreeable.”
Luckily, the senators only have 20 minutes to question Barrett on Wednesday.
Or, in some, cases lecture and rail against Trump.
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