Supreme Court candidate Amy Coney Barrett: that's how the hearing day in the Senate went

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Amy Coney Barrett leaves the hearing room: Talked a lot, said little

Photo: Samuel Corum / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Amy Coney Barrett is polite.

It doesn't get loud.

She talks a lot that day, but gives little away.

Barrett is President Donald Trump's nominee for a judge's position on the Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States.

This week she faces the judicial committee hearings in the Senate.

She is to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal icon who was considered a champion of women's rights and who died a few weeks ago.

The situation is extraordinary: just a few years ago, Republicans said they didn't want to run Supreme Court candidates in an election year.

You change your mind.

Now they want to confirm Barrett as a Supreme Court judge before the November 3rd election.

This would move the court further to the right, six out of nine judges would be conservative.

Democrats fear the erosion of minority rights

For the Democrats, Barrett's line-up is more of a nuisance than that: through her nomination, they see the rights of women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people at risk, and they believe Barrett's “Affordable Care Act”, the Former President Barack Obama's health care reform could tip over.

Ironically, the Supreme Court is negotiating Obamacare just a week after the presidential election.

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Barrett in conversation with Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate

Photo: HILARY SWIFT / AFP

The hearing on Tuesday dragged on, Barrett was questioned for more than nine hours by the 22 members of the Judiciary Committee.

It was mostly about Obamacare.

The Senators of the Democrats showed in rows pictures of people who would no longer be able to pay for essential medicines as a result of the repeal of the health care reform.

They told stories about children, the elderly and the sick.

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris enumerated who would suffer the most: Over 100 million Americans would have to pay more for their insurance or lose their insurance, Harris said.

Black Americans and other people of color are particularly affected.

135 million Americans relied on the Affordable Care Act because they had pre-existing conditions and insurance companies would no longer have to take them in if health care reforms were overturned.

Harris asked whether Barrett, who is currently a federal judge, is incorporating the consequences of her decisions for Americans into her judicial process.

"That's part of the decision in either case," said Barrett.

Would she also consider the consequences when deciding on the health reform?

"Senator, examining how the outcome of a dispute will affect the parties is part of the legal decision-making process and I will continue to be a part of it to the best of my knowledge," said Barrett.

Barrett has questioned old decisions of the Supreme Court

What sounds clear is not so clear.

In a 2017 essay, Barrett questioned a decision by the Supreme Court not to overturn healthcare reform.

She wrote that Judge John G. Roberts Jr. had exaggerated "the plausible meaning" of the law in order to save it.

Barrett denied any questions about her current position on the law, citing previous nominees who also did not take a clear position on issues.

Republican Senator Mike Crapo was trying to get at least one direction from her.

In the summer she took part in a "mock trial", a fictitious court case for students, which dealt with the question of health reform.

Crapo asked how she had decided there.

Barrett said she supported a variant where only a small part of the reform was declared unconstitutional, but the main components remained.

But that should not be seen as "a signal", neither to Trump nor to anyone else.

Trump has said in the past that Obamacare would be overturned with judges he appoints for making "the right decision".

Barrett said several times that Trump had not spoken to her about it.

"I haven't made any promises or deals or anything," she promised the committee.

What is Barrett's view of the right to abortion?

Not only did their attitude towards health insurance remain nebulous.

Barrett is Catholic and devout.

She has spoken out in the past several times in favor of restricting the right to abortion in the United States.

That was years ago, she signed corresponding letters when she was not yet a judge.

Democrats and civil rights groups now fear that Barrett, along with other conservative judges, could try to severely restrict or even overturn the right to abortion.

Barrett did not reveal her attitude as a judge despite frequent inquiries.

Something else worries the Democrats: They believe that after the election, Trump could try to contest the result with the support of the conservative Supreme Court justices.

Several times Senators asked Barrett if she would distance herself from such a case because of bias.

Barrett promised to examine himself but, once again, made no promises.

A section:

• "Do you think that every president should be unequivocal and determined in advocating a peaceful transfer of power?" Asked Senator Cory Booker (Democrats).

• "Well, Senator, that seems to pull me a little into the question of whether the President said he would not resign peacefully. Since this is currently a political controversy, I want to stay out of it and not express an opinion," answered Barrett.

She only worked emotionally once.

Barrett has seven children, two of whom are black.

When she spoke to them about the violent death of George Floyd, she cried with her older daughter Vivian.

"So far, my children have had the advantage of growing up in a cocoon in which they were not exposed to hatred and violence. And to realize for Vivian that her brother or the sons she might one day have to be exposed to this brutality is a conversation that we have in our family, "she said, her voice trembling in between.

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Cory Booker questions Barrett

Photo: Hilary Swift / AP

Nevertheless, she hesitated to name systemic racism in the American legal system.

Only after multiple inquiries from Booker did Barrett say that there was an "indirect bias" in the system.

The Justice Committee is due to appoint Barrett as a judge this week, according to the Republicans.

It would be a miracle if the Democrats could find a way to prevent that in the Republican-led Senate.

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