Name: Amy Coney Barrett: Trump Supreme Court nominee sidesteps questions - BBC News
Uploaded: 2020-10-24T21:10:38.000Z
Duration: 7 min 11 s
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President Trump's choice for the next Supreme Court judge has been facing questions from senators.

Now Senator Amy Klobuchar has been asking about the Supreme Court on postal voting.

But then yesterday, three Trump appointed judges came in and reverse that.

So we're back toe one ballot box for people to drop their ballots off.

In a county of 4.7 million people in Tennessee, Republicans have tried to prevent ballot drop boxes.

I know we had the secretary of state as one of our witnesses at a Rules Committee hearing, and they have argued in court that Cove in 19 is not a valid excuse to vote by mail.

In North Carolina, the Supreme Court struck down a core component of the Voting Rights Act.

Well, states like North Carolina passed laws that were so egregious to make it harder to vote that the fourth Circuit struck down their law and noted that a target African Americans with almost surgical precision.

So that is what the stakes are, and that is why not.

Having justice Ginsburg on the court right now is so frightening to so many Americans out there.

And that is why we're asking you these questions about voting.

So let me turn to another So that z Senator Klobuchar making a statement as much as asking a question.

You can see Amy Coney about listening intently and no doubt will respond in time.

Remember President Trump nominated Judge Barrett after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

She was on the liberal side of the court.

If Miss Barrett replaces her, they would then be a strong conservative majority of 6 to 3 and conservative Americans a keen on the nominee because of her record on issues such as abortion, gay marriage and gun rights.

But senators weren't getting many detailed answers from her today on her beliefs on those issues.

For example, here's the Democrat Dianne Feinstein, it xda stressing not to get a straight answer.

Do you agree with Justice Scalia's view that Roe was wrongly decided?

Senator, I completely understand why you are asking the question, but again, I can't pre commit or say Yes, I'm going in with some agenda because I'm not.

I don't have any agenda have no agenda to try to overrule Casey.

I have an agenda to stick to the rule of law and decide cases as they come.

That was Judge Barrett answer on abortion or, more specifically, the 1973 Supreme Court case that gave American women the right to choose toe have an abortion.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has tweeted Amy Coney.

Barrett signed an ad calling Roe versus Wade barbaric and spoke to anti abortion groups.

Now she won't say whether Roe was wrongly decided.

Barrett has an agenda, she says, to get on the court to overturn reproductive rights.

On although the original Supreme Court case was almost 50 years ago, this still remains a key election issue for some voters.

Indeed, many Republican politicians would like to see Roe versus Wade overturned, but public opinion is largely in favor of abortion rights.

It shows 61% of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Well, Judge Barrett was also questioned about the Affordable Care Act.

It looks likely this will end up in the Supreme Court shortly after the election, which is why it's coming up so much.

Any issue that would arise under the Affordable Care Act or any other statute should be determined by the law by looking at the text of the statute by looking at precedent, um, the same way that it would for anyone and if there were policy differences or policy consequences, those air for this body for the court, it's really a question of adhering to the law, going where the law leads and leaving the policy decisions up to you.

Then Democrats are also considering what might happen if the election results end up in the Supreme Court.

Bear in mind, that happened before in 2000.

Here's what she said on that it would be a complete violation of the independence of the judiciary, for anyone to put a justice on the court as a means of obtaining a particular result.

And that's why, as I was mentioning, I think to Senator Grassley that the questionnaire that I fill out for this committee makes clear that I have made no pre commitments to anyone about how I would decide a case that's out of respect for Article three, and its designation of the judiciary is a co equal and independent branch of government.

I want to bring in Laura Trevelyan in Washington.

If the Democrats were hoping to knock her off her stride, they don't seem to have managed it well, this is pretty much the pattern.

She is the third conservative justice that President Trump has put forward for the Supreme Court in his time in office on the previous two followed exactly the same playbook.

In fact, the playbook goes all the way back to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose seat Amy Coney Barrett would potentially take on the Supreme Court on in her hearing in 1993 on Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that she would not talk about how she could rule on a potential case.

She said, no hints, no forecasts, no previews on.

Actually, Amy Coney Barrett quoted her today.

So all they could do, really is trying to draw attention to the rulings, which they believe she would cast pivotal votes on namely Affordable Care Act.

That's health insurance for millions of Americans who don't have that much money, abortion and also same sex marriage.

Laura, Will the senators be calling witnesses to talk about their interactions with Amy Coney?

Well, we heard yesterday from Amy Coney Ban, it's law professor at Notre Dame University, who spoke to the quality of her as a legal scholar on This is what you have Republicans emphasizing because they don't really want to talk about the issues here, which are hot button issues.

They don't particularly want to talk about abortion.

They don't want to talk about the idea that there could be a contested election that would come before the Supreme Court.

So they're talking about Amy Coney Barrett.

The fact she's a mother of seven that she has two adopted Children, including she also has a child with down syndrome.

So she's really summing up this idea of the capable professional woman.

Republicans are hoping, in fact, that she'll help them close that gender gap.

Joe Biden seems to have a big lead with women in polling, so by confirming her to the court.

Republicans are hoping to change the subject, get away from coronavirus, also not talk about all of these problematic cases that she could rule on.

 Thio the key things that they believe could come up in front of the court. 