Democrats preview strategy on Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings this week

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary committee spent Sunday previewing their plans for the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Amy Coney Barrett set to start this week before the panel.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told “Fox News Sunday” that he plans to frame Barrett’s views as “disqualifying” her from serving on the court. 

“I’m going to be laying out the ways in which Judge Barrett’s views, her views on reaching back and reconsidering and overturning long-settled precedent, are not just extreme; they’re disqualifying,” he said.

“She has views that make her not qualified to serve on the Supreme Court,” he said, adding that “President Trump has said he would only nominate someone who would overturn the Affordable Care Act, taking away health care protections for 100 million Americans.”

Another Democratic committee member, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) told CNN’s “State of the Union” that she would avoid asking “irrelevant questions” about Barrett’s Catholicism during the religion. 

“Her religion is immaterial, irrelevant,” she said. “That is what I said. And so that is my position. I am totally focused on what this nominee sitting there as a justice is gonna do in striking down the Affordable Care Act. That’s what I’m focused on.” 

Democratic senators’ comments on Sunday aligned with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) previous instructions for party members during the hearing.  Amid Republican warnings, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has directed Democratic senators to focus on “health care, health care, health care” during Barrett’s hearings and avoid criticizing her character and Catholicism. 

Barrett is expected to align herself with the late Justice Antonin Scalia according to her opening statement, obtained by The Hill on Sunday, saying “A judge must apply the law as written, not as the judge wishes it were.”

“Courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life,” she plans to say. “The policy decisions and value judgments of government 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.”

Barrett, in her opening statement, is expected to sidestep what will be some of Democrats’ biggest questions, including her views on the Affordable Care Act, recusing herself from election-related cases and if she will feel bound by previous Supreme Court precedent.

Democrats have spoken out against confirming Barrett, accusing Republicans of hypocrisy after the GOP Senate blocked Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland’s confirmation for being too close to the election during the 2016 presidential election year.

But Republicans have argued this situation is different because the same party has power in the Senate and The White House, and officials have plowed forward in the hopes of confirming the judge before Election Day. President Trump announced he would nominate Barrett 38 days before the Nov. 3 election.

Ahead of Barrett’s hearing, Democratic nominee Joe Biden has continued to avoid answering whether he would pack the Supreme Court if Barrett is confirmed and he is elected president, sparking condemnation from Republicans.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) labeled Biden’s refusal to say whether he’d back packing the Supreme Court as “grotesque” on “Fox News Sunday.” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said on CBS’s “Face The Nation” that the lack of answer from the Democratic candidate “should be all the media’s focused on.” 

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the co-chair of Biden’s campaign, declined to answer the court packing question, calling it “hypothetical” and “a distraction with 22 days before the election” on ABC’s “This Week.”