Judge Amy Coney Barrett will face questions from the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, as hearings into her nomination to the United States Supreme Court continue.
Barrett sat in front of the committee Monday, silent and masked, listening to committee members give their opening statement. Later in the afternoon, she gave her own opening statement.
On Tuesday, Barrett will be grilled by committee members who have 30 minutes each to ask Barrett about her views on the law in the first round of questioning.
Democrats on the committee talked about the Affordable Care Act and a case about it coming before the Supreme Court on Nov. 10. Many of the Democrats speaking Monday told stories and held up photos of people who have been helped by the ACA.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, suggested to Barrett that, should she be confirmed to the Supreme Court, she should recuse herself from any potential cases that would decide the 2020 election.
Barrett referenced the woman she has been nominated to replace on the country’s highest court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "I have been nominated to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat, but
no one will ever take her place. I will be forever grateful for the path she marked and the life she led," Barrett said.
Barrett also put senators on notice about her belief in the role of a justice on the Supreme Court.
“I also clerked for Justice Scalia, and like many law students, I felt like I knew the justice before I ever met him because I had read so many of his colorful, accessible opinions,” she said. "More than the style of his writing, though, it was the content of Justice Scalia’s reasoning that shaped me.
“His judicial philosophy was straightforward: A judge must apply the law as written, not as the judge wishes it were. Sometimes that approach meant reaching results that he did not like. But as he put it in one of his best-known opinions, that is what it means to say we have a government of laws, not of men.”
Barrett was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the seat of Ginsberg, who died Sept. 18.
Here is what we know about the hearing and what happens next.
What time: The hearing begins at 9 a.m. ET.
What channel: Most cable news networks and PBS will carry Barrett’s hearing live, though CNN did not carry the hearing gavel-to-gavel on Monday.
What is the schedule:
On Tuesday, questioning by senators will begin with each committee member getting 30 minutes to question Barrett.
On Wednesday, hearings will continue with senators getting 20 minutes each for questioning. If the questioning should continue on Wednesday, committee members would be limited to 10 minutes each for questioning.
On Thursday, testimony from outside witnesses is scheduled.
On Oct. 22, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he plans to hold a vote on Barrett’s confirmation and send the recommendation for her confirmation to the full Senate.
Livestream: Here is the livestream of the event. The livestream will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
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