Barrett promises to be apolitical as Democrats warn of threat to health care

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett presented herself to the nation Monday as a humble and apolitical judge, opening a pandemic-altered Senate confirmation hearing that Democrats tried to make as much about health care, covid-19 and President Trump as about Barrett’s qualifications.

It was the start of what will be an acrimonious four days, as Republicans embark just weeks before Election Day on a historic move to lock in a long-sought 6-to-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court and perhaps boost Trump’s and their own reelection prospects.

Democrats acknowledged there is little they can do to stop Barrett’s confirmation. So they seemed determined to use the hearings to portray Republicans as a threat to the Affordable Care Act and the nomination as a last-ditch effort to save Trump should next month’s election lead to litigation in the Supreme Court.

On optics alone, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) seemed to speak for everyone when he said, “There is nothing about this that is normal.”

A slim majority of voters oppose Barrett hearings, though a consistent majority support high court upholding Roe v. Wade, Post-ABC poll finds

The nominee, who spoke for just 12 minutes, wore a black mask for nearly the entire hearing. Several members of the Senate Judiciary Committee participated remotely, one because he has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. In a first, the Architect of the Capitol submitted a letter certifying that the hearing room met Centers for Disease Control and Prevention safety regulations.

And when the 48-year-old Barrett, nominated by Trump after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death less than a month ago, finally spoke, it was from a table that had just been cleared of anti-bacterial wipes and hand sanitizer.

She rarely strayed from remarks released by the White House on Sunday, in which she pledged a nonpartisan and deferential approach to judging.