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Right to abortion, same-sex marriages? Conservative attorney Amy Coney Barrett keeps a low profile at a Senate hearing.
Avoiding controversial issues: The candidate is independent and judges based on the law and not on her convictions. (October 13, 2020)
Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo (Getty Images)
A grueling marathon poll of Donald Trump’s candidate for the United States Supreme Court has not clarified how she will rule on controversial issues such as the right to abortion or same-sex marriage.
Conservative attorney Amy Coney Barrett declined to reveal her position on previous court rulings on these issues at her Senate hearing Tuesday. At the same time, he stressed that he was independent and that he would decide based on the law rather than his convictions. There is still a question and answer session on Wednesday.
According to Trump’s wishes, Barrett will succeed the recently deceased liberal judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. With him, the Conservatives would obtain a dominant majority of six of the nine seats in the Supreme Court. The court often has the last word on politically controversial issues. Read also: Trump’s wife for Supreme Court alarms Democrats
If she were to express an opinion on a precedent, this could give the parties an indication of what decision she would be inclined to make in a specific case, Barrett justified her evasive responses in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Discrimination: “disgusting”
Specifically, he did not want to comment on whether, from his point of view, two preceding Supreme Court rulings that some conservatives in the United States want to overturn were correct or incorrect. It is the trial of Roe v. Wade of 1973, which stated that women’s right to abortion was covered by the United States Constitution, and Obergefell v. Hodges, with whom he also settled for same-sex marriages in 2015. Barrett also said he found the discrimination “abhorrent.” “I would never discriminate based on sexual preferences.”
This phrase brought criticism to Barrett, on the grounds that she presupposed from her choice of the words “preferences” that this is something a person can freely decide about. After a hint, he apologized: he didn’t mean to offend anyone.
When asked if a US president was obligated to transfer power peacefully, Barrett did not respond. This would drag her into a political controversy, she said, citing recent statements by Trump. It refuses, citing alleged electoral fraud, to guarantee a peaceful change of power in the event of a defeat on November 3.
Comment: “Not appropriate”
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked Barrett if it was illegal under federal law to intimidate voters in elections. Barrett responded that he could not apply the law to hypothetical events. Klobuchar asked: “Do you think a reasonable person would feel intimidated in the presence of armed civilian groups in elections?” Barrett also didn’t respond to that, saying it was “inappropriate” to comment.
She rarely showed emotion during questioning: Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (October 13, 2020)
Photo: Rod Lamkey (Keystone)
Barrett rarely showed emotion in the eleven-hour survey, which was sometimes controversial. “The committee should have more confidence in my integrity than to think that I will be used as a pawn in deciding the outcome of the elections for the American people,” he said at one point.
Women’s rights: the “Ginsburg rule”
Barrett also referred to the so-called “Ginsburg Rule” when he declined to comment on precedent. The legendary judge had told her hearing in 1993 that she “would not give clues, or prognoses, or perspectives” on how she would judge future cases. However, that didn’t stop Ginsburg from backing the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion rights. He stressed that women should have the right to decide because otherwise they would be disadvantaged because of their gender.
Judges are nominated by the President and appointed for life by the Senate. Republicans hold 53 of the 100 Senate seats. Democrats cannot prevent Barrett’s appointment on their own. Therefore, his strategy is to mobilize voters with the warning that a court with Barrett could overturn President Barack Obama’s health care reform. Barrett was also covered in her position on “Obamacare.”
“I think it is an undeniable statement that racism persists in our country.”
But he stressed that he had not had a conversation with Trump about specific cases. “I have not promised anyone how to solve a case.” Nor was he “hostile” to Obama reform, he said.
Barrett had criticized the reasoning of the Supreme Court in a ruling that declared the reform to be constitutional. Now he emphasized that the evaluation only referred to an aspect covered at that time and should not be taken as an indication of his future position.
Read also: The United States Supreme Court is out of control
In a personal moment, Barrett spoke about the effect that the death of black American George Floyd had on his family when he was arrested. He has two adopted children from Haiti. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin asked Barrett if he had seen the video in which a police officer held his knee to the back of Floyd’s neck for about eight minutes, who later died.
It was very personal for my family, “we cried together,” Barrett said. He had to talk to his children about the consequences of their skin color in their lives. “Racism is abhorrent,” Barrett said. “I think it is an undeniable statement that racism persists in our country.”
