next we turn to washington president
trump's choice for the next supreme
court judge has been facing questions
from senators let's
uh listen in on the live feed now
senator amy klobuchar has been asking
about
the supreme court and postal voting he
did
but then yesterday three trump-appointed
judges
came in and reversed that so we're back
to one
ballot box for people to drop their
ballots off in a county of 4.7 million
people
in tennessee republicans have tried to
prevent ballot drop boxes i know we had
the secretary of state as one of our
witnesses at a rules committee hearing
and they have argued in court that
coveted 19
is not a valid excuse to vote by mail
in north carolina the supreme court
struck down a core component of the
voting rights act what happened
well states like north carolina passed
laws that were so egregious to make it
harder
to vote that the fourth circuit struck
down their law and noted that it
targeted african americans
with almost surgical precision
so that is what the stakes are and that
is why not
having justice ginsburg on the court
right now
is so frightening to so many americans
out there
and that is why we are asking you these
questions
about voting so let me just turn to
another so that's uh
senator klobuchar uh making a statement
as much as
asking a question you can see amy coney
about
listening intently and no doubt will
respond in time we'll keep listening
across that now remember president trump
nominated
judge barrett after the death of ruth
bader ginsburg she was on the
liberal side of the court if miss
barrett replaces her
there would then be a strong
conservative majority of six to three
and conservative americans
are keen on the nominee because of her
record on issues such as abortion gay
marriage and gun rights
but senators weren't getting many
detailed answers
from her today on her beliefs on those
issues for example
here's the democrat dianne feinstein
it's it's distressing not to get a
straight answer
so let me try again do you agree with
justice scalia's view that roe was
wrongly decided
senator i completely understand why you
are asking the question
but again i can't pre-commit
or say yes i'm going in with some agenda
because i'm not i don't have any agenda
i have no agenda
to try to overrule casey i have an
agenda to stick to the rule of law and
decide cases as they come
so that was judge barrett's answer on
abortion or more specifically the 1973
supreme court case that gave american
women the right to choose
to have an abortion democrats are
skeptical of her answers senator
elizabeth warren has tweeted
amy coney barrett signed an ad calling
roe versus wade barbaric
and spoke to anti-abortion groups now
she won't say whether roe was wrongly
decided
don't be fooled barrett has an agenda
she says to get on the court to overturn
reproductive rights and although the
original supreme court case was almost
50 years ago this still remains a key
election issue
for some voters indeed many republican
politicians would like to see roe versus
wade overturned
but public opinion is largely in favor
of abortion rights this graph is from
pew research
it shows 61 of americans think abortion
should be legal in
all or most cases while judge barrett
was also questioned about the affordable
care act you'll often hear that called
obamacare
it looks likely this will end up in the
supreme court shortly after the election
which is why it's coming up so much
here's one exchange any issue that would
arise under the affordable care act or
any other statute
should be determined by the law by
looking at the text of the statute by
looking at precedent
the same way that it would for anyone
and
if there were policy differences or
policy consequences those are for this
body
for the court it's really a question of
adhering to the law
and going where the law leads and
leaving the policy decisions up to you
then democrats are also considering what
might happen if the election results end
up
in the supreme court bear in mind that
happened before in 2000
here's what she said on that it would be
a complete violation of the independence
of the judiciary
for anyone to put a justice on the court
as a means of obtaining a particular
result and that's why
as i was mentioning i think to senator
grassley that the questionnaire that i
fill out for this committee
makes clear that i have made no
pre-commitments to anyone
about how i would decide a case that's
out of respect for
article 3 and its designation of the
judiciary as a co-equal and independent
branch of government
let's bring in laura trevalion in
washington who is watching it um
laura if the democrats were hoping to
knock her off her stride they don't seem
to have managed it
well this is pretty much the pattern she
is
the third conservative justice that
president trump has put forward for the
supreme court
in his time in office and the previous
two
followed exactly the same playbook in
fact the playbook goes all the way back
to ruth bader ginsburg
whose seat amy coney barrett would
potentially take on the supreme court
and in her hearing in 1993
ruth bader ginsburg said that she would
not talk about how she could rule on a
potential case
she said no hints no forecasts no
previews
and actually amy coney barrett quoted
her today so there you have it checkmate
very frustrating for democrats they
can't lay a finger on her
and they don't have the votes to stop
her so all they can do
really is try to draw attention to the
rulings which they believe
she would cast pivotal votes on namely
affordable
care act that's health insurance for
millions of americans who don't have
that much money
abortion and also same-sex marriage
laura will the senators be
calling witnesses to talk about their
interactions with amy coney barrett
well we heard yesterday from amy coney
bennett's law professor at notre dame
university
who spoke to the quality of her as a
legal scholar
and this is what you have republicans
emphasizing because they don't really
want to talk about the issues here which
are hot button issues they don't
particularly want to talk about abortion
they don't want to talk about the idea
that they could be a contested election
that would come before the supreme court
so they're talking
about amy coney barrett's impeccable
legal credentials the fact she's a
mother
of seven that she has two adopted
children including
she also has a child with down syndrome
so she's really summing up this idea of
the capable professional woman
republicans are hoping in fact that
she'll help them close that gender gap
joe biden seems to have a big lead with
women in polling so by confirming her to
the court
republicans are hoping to change the
subject get away from coronavirus
also not talk about all of these
problematic cases that she could
rule on but democrats keep bringing it
back to
the key things that they believe could
come up in front of the court