Extract from ABC News
President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has been grilled by US senators at her Senate confirmation hearing on her religious beliefs and her views on abortion and gay rights.
Key points:
- Republican Senator Lindsey Graham began Amy Coney Barrett's questioning
- A devout Catholic and a favourite of religious conservatives, Ms Barrett said she could set aside her religious beliefs to make decisions as a justice
- The 48-year-old declined to answer on whether the right for a woman to have an abortion had been properly decided
The hearing also presented Judge Barrett with a chance to respond to Democrats who have been unified in opposing her on what they say would be her role in undermining Obamacare healthcare legislation and its protection for patients with pre-existing conditions.
Judge Barrett, facing questioning by senators for the first time, declined to say if she would consider stepping aside from the case, as Democrats have requested, saying she would follow rules on recusal, which give individual justices the final say.
Judge Barrett declined to say if she would step aside from any election-related cases that could reach the court.
"It would be a gross violation of judicial independence for me to make any such commitment or for me to be asked about that case," Judge Barrett told the committee.
Judge Barrett noted that the new case centres upon a different legal issue than two previous Supreme Court rulings that upheld Obamacare, which she had criticised.
She declined to say how she would approach the new case, but said, "I am not hostile to the ACA."
Judge Barrett also said the White House did not seek her assurance that she would vote to strike down the law.
The Affordable Care Act is Democratic former president Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement and has enabled millions of Americans to obtain medical coverage. Democrats have blasted Mr Trump for trying to kill Obamacare amid a deadly pandemic.
Invoking Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Judge Barrett invoked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in refusing to discuss her view on gay rights and the constitution.
"Justice Ginsburg with her characteristic pithiness used this to describe how a nominee should comport herself at a hearing. No hints, no previews, no forecasts," she said of the woman whose seat she would take if confirmed.
"That had been the practice of nominees before her. But everybody calls it the Ginsburg rule because she stated it so concisely."
It became a standard response by Republican high court nominees to recite Ms Ginsburg's words from her own confirmation hearing.
Justice Ginsburg, who died last month, did utter those words 27 years ago, saying: "A judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process."
'Distressing' non-answer on abortion
But she also said much more on a range of hotly debated issues, including abortion.
Abortion rights advocates have expressed concern that she would vote to overturn the 1973 Roe versus Wade ruling that legalised abortion nationwide.
Asked about that ruling, Judge Barrett said she would consider the various factors usually applied when justices weigh whether to overturn a precedent.
"I promise to do that for any issue that comes up, abortion or anything else. I'll follow the law," she said.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the panel's top Democrat, asked Judge Barrett whether she believed Roe v Wade, which recognised a woman's constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, was properly decided.
After Judge Barrett declined to answer, Senator Feinstein told her: "so on something that is really a major cause with major effects on over half of the population of this country — who are women, after all — it's distressing not to get a straight answer."
Religious conservatives are hoping the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v Wade.
Earlier, Republican senator Lindsey Graham, the committee's chairman, opened the questioning by asking her about her conservative legal philosophy known as originalism, in which laws and the Constitution are interpreted based on the meaning they had at the time they were enacted.
The US constitution was written in 1787.
"That meaning doesn't change over time and it's not for me to update it or infuse my own policy views into it," Judge Barrett said.
Senator Graham asked Judge Barrett, a devout Catholic and a favourite of religious conservatives, whether she could set aside her religious beliefs in making decisions as a justice.
"I can," Ms Barrett said.
Barrett denies she will be a Scalia clone
Ms Barrett called the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she served as a clerk two decades ago, her mentor, but said she would not always rule the same way as him.
Questioned by Senator Feinstein, Judge Barrett would not comment on whether she agreed with Scalia that the 2015 Supreme Court ruling legalising gay marriage nationwide was wrongly decided.
"I have no agenda and I do want to be clear that I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and I would not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference," Judge Barrett said.
Ms Barrett was nominated to a lifetime post on the court on September 26 by Mr Trump to replace the late liberal Justice Ginsburg.
Republicans have a 53-47 Senate majority, leaving Democrats with little to no chance of blocking Ms Barrett's confirmation.
If confirmed, the 48-year-old would tilt the Supreme Court further to the right and give conservative justices a 6-3 majority.
Ms Barrett would also be Mr Trump's third Supreme Court appointment.
Reuters/AP
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