The confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett will kick off Monday despite criticism from Democrats about the event possibly being unsafe because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin at 9 a.m. ET and last though Thursday.
Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said that he expects the committee to approve the 48-year-old judge by Oct. 22, giving Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell enough time to bring the nomination to the Senate floor before Election Day.
The confirmation battle, set in the middle of the contentious election contest between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, has so far lacked the theatrics of the last fight over a Supreme Court nominee.
But the consequences could prove dramatic, as Trump aims to solidify a 6-3 conservative majority on the country’s highest court. Barrett was nominated to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who served for nearly three decades on the Supreme Court and became its most senior liberal justice.
Barrett is expected to speak at the end of the day on Monday. In prepared remarks, the judge focuses on her family, introducing the Judiciary Committee to her seven children and her husband, Jesse.
She also praises Ginsburg and her judicial mentor, Justice Antonin Scalia, with whom she has said she shares a philosophy. Ginsburg and Scalia were close friends but ideological opposites.
Barrett will also express her view that courts should avoid making policy decisions and value judgments, which she will say “must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people.”
“The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try,” she will say.
Looming over the confirmation is Ginsburg’s final wish that she not be replaced until after the election, which Biden and his congressional allies have called on Republicans to heed. Barrett does not address Ginsburg’s dying statement in her prepared remarks, but does share kind words about the late justice.
“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 will say.
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