{"id":89683,"date":"2020-10-14T06:59:17","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T11:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=89683"},"modified":"2020-10-14T06:59:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T11:59:17","slug":"auto-draft-260","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2020\/10\/14\/auto-draft-260\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Nominee Barrett Declines to Answer Questions on Key Court Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Tuesday declined to answer a range of questions from senators on how she might rule on legal disputes she would face if confirmed to fill a crucial vacancy on the country\u2019s highest court. Barrett, however, said she would not let her personal and religious views determine how she would decide cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no agenda,\u201d Barrett said as the Senate Judiciary Committee opened two days of questioning on her lifetime appointment by President Donald Trump to the nine-member court. \u201cI\u2019ll follow the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrett, in initial queries from two Republicans, the panel chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, and two Democrats, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy, declined to say how she might rule on the court\u2019s 1973 legalization of abortions in the United States, gun ownership rights sanctioned by the U.S. Constitution and whether, in a case to be heard by the court next month, the country\u2019s national health care law should remain in effect.<\/p>\n

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\"Judge<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
Judge Amy Coney Barrett speaks after President Donald Trump announced her as his nominee to the Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden at the White House, Sept. 26, 2020, in Washington.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Legal disputes on presidential election<\/strong><\/p>\n

She also rebuffed a question on whether she would recuse herself, if she is quickly confirmed by the Senate, from considering any legal disputes arising from the Nov. 3 national election. Trump is trying to win a second four-year term in the White House and faces Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Trump has assailed mass balloting by mail and said he wants the court to help decide the election. The president, trailing Biden in national polls, says he wants Barrett confirmed to avoid a 4-4 stalemate on contested election issues.<\/p>\n

Barrett said she has had no conversations with Trump or his staff \u201con how I would rule\u201d on election disputes. She said it would have been unethical for her as a sitting federal appellate court judge to have such a discussion.<\/p>\n

The 48-year-old Barrett is a favorite of U.S. conservatives looking to give the court a decided 6-3 conservative majority for decades to come. She has cited the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she served as a law clerk two decades ago, as her philosophical mentor, for his strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution as written two centuries ago rather than reinterpreting it to current life in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Barrett said that if she is confirmed as the fifth woman ever to serve on the court, \u201cYou would be getting a Justice Barrett, not a Justice Scalia.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Justice<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in state in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sept. 25, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg<\/strong><\/p>\n

If confirmed, Barrett would replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon who died last month at 87. Democratic critics fear that Barrett would vote to undo many of the reforms championed by Ginsburg, including abortion rights and the right for gays to marry and be treated equally in American society.<\/p>\n

Graham called Barrett\u2019s selection \u201cone of the greatest picks President Trump could make.\u201d He predicted Monday that the committee’s 12 Republicans will all vote in favor of Barrett’s nomination with all 10 Democrats opposed. Republican leaders say they have enough votes in the full Senate to confirm her nomination.<\/p>\n

Gun ownership, abortion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barrett assured Graham that despite her family owning a gun, she could fairly \u201cdecide such a case\u201d calling for tighter restrictions on gun ownership sanctioned by the Constitution\u2019s Second Amendment.<\/p>\n

Barrett said that even as the court has ruled that Americans have a personal right to own a gun, the ruling \u201cleaves room for gun regulation. I promise I would come to that with an open mind. Any issue should be decided by the facts of the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Senate<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attends the second day of the U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Oct. 13, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Similarly, Barrett said as an appellate court judge she has set aside her devout Catholic beliefs to issue rulings according to U.S. law and could do so again on the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

But she made no promises on how she might rule on abortion, which the Catholic Church opposes.<\/p>\n

She said high court precedent from long ago rulings is \u201cpresumptively controlling,\u201d and that some decisions fall into the \u201csuper precedent\u201d category, such as the 1954 decision banning school segregation by races as unequal treatment of Blacks and unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

Scalia dissented against abortion rights, but Barrett declined to say whether she also thinks the legality of abortion was wrongly decided.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be wrong for me as a sitting judge to say,\u201d Barrett told Feinstein. \u201cI have to decide cases as they come before me. I can\u2019t pre-commit to judge a case in any way. I\u2019ll follow the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

At another point in Tuesday\u2019s questioning, Barrett told Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, \u201cI\u2019m 100% committed to judicial independence.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Klobuchar said she fears that a Justice Barrett \u201cwould be the polar opposite\u201d of Ginsburg in the way she votes on key cases. \u201cThat\u2019s what concerns me,\u201d Klobuchar said.<\/p>\n

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\"Sen.<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., speaks during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Oct. 13, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

30 minutes of questions per Senator<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 22 Judiciary panel lawmakers each had 30 minutes to question Barrett on Tuesday before a second round of questions set for Wednesday. Graham is planning an initial vote for Thursday on her nomination.<\/p>\n

That would allow for final approval late next week and a vote by the full Republican-majority Senate before the end of the month, just days ahead of the presidential and congressional elections.<\/p>\n

The confirmation hearings opened Monday with Barrett telling senators that courts \u201cshould not try\u201d to make policy and should leave that to American presidents and Congress.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Day 1 of hearing<\/strong><\/p>\n

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