U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Barrett Praising Prayer At Turbulent Nomination Hearing
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett thanked those who had been praying for her as she presented her case to serve at the nation’s top court ahead of a turbulent nomination hearing.
“I believe in the power of prayer, and it’s been uplifting that so many people have been praying for me,” Judge Barrett, a devout Catholic, told members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. “Nothing is more important to me, and I am so proud to have them behind me,” she stressed.
The 48-year-old came with her husband and six of their seven children, including two adopted from earthquake-stricken Haiti, behind her in a hearing room off-limits to the public and altered for coronavirus risks.
Barrett took off her protective face mask as she delivered views at odds with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose seat President Donald Trump nominated her to fill, likely before Election Day.
“Courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life,” declared the federal appeals court judge, removing the protective mask she wore most of the day to read from a prepared statement.
CONSERVATIVE VIEWS
To the delight of her Republican supporters, she defended her approach to the law as conservative and fair, while angry Democrats cast her as a threat to Americans’ health care coverage during the coronavirus pandemic.
Americans “deserve an independent Supreme Court that interprets our Constitution and laws as they are written,” she said. Barrett likened her judicial philosophy to that of her conservative mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the deeply divided Judiciary Committee, said he expected her to get confirmed soon, despite fierce opposition from “my Democratic friends.”
In their opening statements, Democrats characterized Judge Barrett as a conservative ideologue who would overturn the Affordable Care Act and invalidate abortion rights.
Republicans directed attention to what they called her sterling résumé and compelling personal story.
‘HEARINGS SHAM’
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar called the Senate’s Supreme Court nomination hearings a “sham.” She even urged Americans to call their senators and voice their opposition.
Klobuchar claimed Judge Barrett would be quickly confirmed along partisan lines unless voters protest President Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee by petitioning their first representatives.
“This isn’t Donald Trump’s country, it is yours,” Klobuchar exclaimed. “This shouldn’t be Donald Trump’s judge; it should be yours.”
Senator Kamala Harris of California, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, warned that Barrett’s nomination jeopardizes everything Ginsburg fought to protect.
Testifying from her office because of the pandemic, Harris said the court is “often the last refuge for equal justice.” She said that not only health care but voting rights, workers’ rights, abortion rights, and the very idea of justice are at stake.
NOMINATION EXPECTED
Barring a dramatic development, Republicans appear to have the votes to confirm Barrett to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court in a fast track procedure.
They spent their time Monday praising her as a thoughtful judge with impeccable credentials.
Her nomination offers the chance to entrench a conservative majority on the court for years to come with Trump’s third justice. Questioning of the nominee was to begin Tuesday.
Outside of the hearings, some liberals said expanding the size of the Supreme Court would be a fitting response to recent Republican moves in the confirmation wars.
Both Democratic presidential nominee Biden and his running mate Harris have repeatedly refused to state whether they support packing the Supreme Court.
REFUSING ANSWER
When pressed again on the issue by a television reporter on Friday, Biden said voters “don’t deserve” to know his position on the subject.
“Sir, don’t the voters deserve to know…” wondered Ross DiMattei of KTNV, a Las Vegas-based affiliate of ABC network.
“No they don’t deserve—I’m not gonna play [President Trump’s] game,” Biden responded, adding that Trump would “love that to be the discussion instead of what he’s doing now.”
Biden said at a Friday press conference that voters would only know his position on court-packing after the election.
“You’ll know my opinion of court-packing when the election is over,” Biden added. “Now look, I know—it’s a great question, and I don’t blame you all for asking. But you know the moment I answer that question, the headline in every one of your papers will be about that.”
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