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Amy Coney Barrett Senate confirmation hearings Day 3 highlights

PHOTO: Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the third day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Oct. 14, 2020 in Washington, DC.
9:42
Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images
SCOTUS confirmation hearings: Day 3 highlights
By Libby Cathey
Last Updated: October 14, 2020, 9:54 PM

The confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, continued Wednesday with seven more hours of questioning.

Senate Republicans are keeping up their push for a final vote before Election Day despite Democratic calls to let voters decide who should pick a new justice.

Trump nominated Barrett to fill the seat left open by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The four days of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, overseen by Chairman Lindsey Graham, are unprecedented, with some members participating virtually and in-person. Barrett has appeared at the witness table to face questions for 19 hours total over two days.

Hearings begin at 9 a.m. each day and will be live streamed on ABC News Live.

The question and answer portion began Tuesday with Democrats arguing protections from landmark cases on health care and same-sex marriage are at risk with Barrett's nomination, while Republicans afforded her opportunities to defend her impartiality as a judge.

Barrett, 48, was a law clerk to conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and follows his originalist interpretation of the Constitution. She practiced law at a Washington firm for two years before returning to her alma mater, Notre Dame Law School, to teach. She was nominated by Trump in 2017 to the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and confirmed by the Senate in a 55-43 vote.

Latest Headlines:

  • Questioning of Barrett concludes
  • Barrett dodges questions from Harris on voting rights, climate change 
  • GOP senators make point of describing Barrett as 'pro-life'
  • Coons warns of new wave of 'conservative judicial activism' with Barrett on court
  • Klobuchar homes in on timeline of Barrett’s criticism of ACA and Trump nominating her to federal court in 2017
Here's how the day developed.

Oct 14, 2020 9:54 PM

Questioning of Barrett concludes

After more than seven hours and two technical glitches, the second round of questioning for Barrett’s confirmation hearings has concluded. 

Chairman Graham said he "lost sleep" over the hearing, but he ultimately thanked Democrats for conducting themselves in a way, Graham says, that is "befitting of the Senate" before offering some words of encouragement to Trump's nominee.

"You’re one of the most amazing human beings I’ve met in my life, and that’s saying a lot because I’ve met a lot of incredible people," Graham told Barrett. "With Amy Barrett, the best is yet to come."

Referring to Justice Ginsburg, Graham told Barrett, "She has a different philosophy than you do judicially. That is OK."

"I hope it’s OK that you can be pro-life and adhere to you faith and still be considered by your citizens worthy on the job."

Perhaps knowing that Republicans have the votes to confirm Barrett, Democrats did not ask for a third round of questioning. Instead, committee members will move forward with the next step in the nomination process, a closed-door session to review Barrett's FBI background check immediately following the hearing.

"You can have two glasses of wine tonight if you’d like," Graham joked, repeating, the hearing part is over."


Oct 14, 2020 9:31 PM

Barrett dodges questions from Harris on voting rights, climate change 

Vice-presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., asked Barrett whether she agrees with the majority opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts in Shelby County v. Holder stating that voter discrimination still exists -- but Barrett wouldn’t answer what Harris said she thought was an easy question.

PHOTO:  Sen. Kamala Harris questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett via videoconference in Washington, Oct.14, 2020.
Andrew Caballero-Reynold/Pool via Getty Images
Sen. Kamala Harris questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett via videoconference in Washington, Oct.14, 2020.
Andrew Caballero-Reynold/Pool via Getty Images

"Senator Harris, I will not comment on what any justice said, an opinion, whether an opinion is right or wrong, and endorse that proposition," Barrett said.

"So, do you call it a proposition or fact? Are you saying you cannot agree with the fact?" Harris pressed.

"Senator, I'm not exactly sure what you're getting at with asking me to endorse the fact or whether any particular practice constitutes voter discrimination. I'm very happy to say that I think racial discrimination still exists in the United States, and I think we've seen evidence of that this summer," Barrett said.

"These are very charged issues that have been litigated in the courts, and so I will not engage on that question," she added, when Harris continued on voter and racial discrimination.

PHOTO: Sen. Kamala Harris questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett via videoconference as she testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the third day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, Oct. 14, 2020.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via Getty Images
Sen. Kamala Harris questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett via videoconference as she testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the third day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, Oct. 14, 2020.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via Getty Images

Dissatisfied with her response, Harris pivoted to science and climate change and, after a series of simple questions including whether she believes in COVID-19, asked Barrett if she believes climate change is real. 

"You have asked me a series of questions like that are completely uncontroversial like whether COVID-19 is infectious, whether smoking causes cancer, and then trying to analogize that to eliciting an opinion from me that is a very contentious matter of public debate, and I will not do that," Barrett said.

She didn't offer the information, but Barrett has previously disclosed she was diagnosed with COVID-19 over the summer.

MORE: Key takeaways from 1st day of Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination hearing

Oct 14, 2020 9:25 PM

Booker presses Barrett on race, Barrett says she wants her children ‘especially Vivian and John Peter’ to know she abhors racial discrimination

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said he was disappointed when Barrett told him she had not read any studies or articles, books, law review articles or commentary regarding racial disparities present in our criminal justice system. 

Barrett eventually said her knowledge of these issues roiling the country comes from conversations at Notre Dame. 

"I would say what I have learned about it has mostly been in conversations with people at Notre Dame. As at many different universities it’s a topic of conversation in classrooms, but it's not something that I can say yes I've done research on this and read," she said.

PHOTO:  Sen. Cory Booker speaks during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill on October 14, 2020 in Washington.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Sen. Cory Booker speaks during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill on October 14, 2020 in Washington.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Following questioning from Booker, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho gave Barrett a chance to defend herself from the "implication" that she would "not be sensitive to the need for equal justice for all." 

Barrett reaffirmed that she "abhors" racial discrimination and said she would want all of her children, "especially Vivian and John Peter" -- her two adopted children -- to know that she "unequivocally condemns racism."

-ABC News’ Trish Turner and Allie Pecorin



Oct 14, 2020 9:18 PM

Ginsburg's legacy looms over hearing room

The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her legacy is a major presence at the confirmation hearing.

Both Republicans and Democrats have invoked the late justice in their questioning -- but her presence was shown in more visual ways, too.

For the third day in a row, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, sported a mask with images of the late icon.

PHOTO: Sen. Mazi Hirono wears a Ruth Bader Ginsburg-themed face mask on the third day of Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Oct. 14, 2020, in Washington.
Ken Cedeno/Pool via Getty Images
Sen. Mazi Hirono wears a Ruth Bader Ginsburg-themed face mask on the third day of Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Oct. 14, 2020, in Washington.
Ken Cedeno/Pool via Getty Images

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., had placed a photo of Ginsburg in front of him for his questioning.

PHOTO: People protest for and against the confirmation of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Oct. 14, 2020.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
People protest for and against the confirmation of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Oct. 14, 2020.
Jose Luis Magana/AP

Not far outside the committee room on Capitol Hill, people for and against Barrett’s nomination protested outside the Supreme Court building, with many holding signs nodding to her signature collar.


Oct 14, 2020 1:30 PM

Graham applauds Barrett for being ‘unashamedly pro-life’, slams Democrats for doubting her impartiality

Chairman Lindsey Graham began the hearing with a defense of Barrett’s impartiality as a judge, after Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., suggested in her questioning Tuesday that Barrett’s personal views may inhibit her judicial independence.

PHOTO: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham speaks at the start of the third day of Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Oct. 14, 2020.
Jonathan Ernst/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham speaks at the start of the third day of Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Oct. 14, 2020.
Jonathan Ernst/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Graham, taking specific issue with Harris' claim that Justice Ginsburg was more forthcoming in her hearing than Barrett has been, pointed to a single example in the Seventh Circuit when Barrett upheld a legislative provision that restricted access for protesters at abortion clinic, in an attempt to show Barrett has ruled against her personal beliefs.

"So, I'm highly confident that you will judge every American based on their case, not the law of Amy," Graham said. "There's one group in America I think has had a hard time of it, and that's conservatives of color and women conservatives ...This hearing, to me, is an opportunity to not punch through a glass ceiling but reinforce a concrete barrier around conservative women. You're going to shatter that barrier."

Graham went on to say he’s never been prouder of a nominee and thanked Trump for bringing her to the table. 

"This is the first time in American history that we have nominated a woman who is unashamedly pro-life, and embraces her faith without apology, and she's going to the Court. A seat at the table is waiting on you. And it will be a great signal to all young women who want -- who share your view of the world that there's a seat at the table for them," Graham said. 

MORE: Is Ginsburg's death the end of Roe v. Wade? This time, some experts say, it could be.

Addressing complaints from Democrats that the fate of the Affordable Care Act is at stake in a case being argued before the court shortly after the election, Graham asked Barrett to outline the doctrine of severability -- namely, that part of a law can be overturned without the entire statute being struck down.

"The main thing is the doctrine of severability has a presumption to stave the statute is possible, is that correct?" Graham asked. "That is correct."

"I want every conservative in the nation to listen. The doctrine of severability presumes and its goal is to preserve the statute if that is possible. So, from a conservative point of view, generally speaking, we want legislative bodies to make laws, not judges, is that correct?

"That is correct," Barrett said.

"Would it be further true that if you can preserve a statute, you try to, to the extent possible?, Graham continued.

"That is true," Barrett said.

On whether the ACA can remain intact if the the individual mandate is struck down, Sen. Graham asks, “the doctrine of severability has a presumption to save the statute if possible, is that correct?”SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett: “That is correct.” https://t.co/lsZ9wdZ7Nt pic.twitter.com/YzUP4JzTPb

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 14, 2020


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