Democrats go after Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s healthcare views as hearings begin

Amy Coney Barrett is Donald Trump's choice to fill the open Supreme Court seat

Credit: Rachel Malehorn, rachelmalehorn.smugmug.com, via AP

Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is being grilled by Democratic congressmen over her views on health care during the opening day of her confirmation hearing.

Ms Barrett is a conservative and and a devout Catholic and has faced questions about how her personal ideology impacts her rulings on legal matters. 

Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee will be putting their concerns to Ms Barrett during this week’s nomination hearings, which started on Monday. 

Ms Barrett arrived in a black mask and sat listening to opening statements from senators on Monday morning. 

Mr Trump and the Republicans have faced controversy for the speed with which they are hoping to get her installed on America’s top court before the election. 

She has been proposed for the Supreme Court which opened in September with the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the most liberal justice on the court.

Republicans want to confirm Ms Barrett before the November 3 election, given they hold both the White House and the Senate majority but may not after the election. 

Democrats have accused Republicans of hypocrisy after they blocked Barack Obama from filling a Supreme Court seat in the final year of his presidency, citing the upcoming election.

Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee, offered an insight into what is to come from her party’s senators in her opening statement on Monday morning. 

She said that the Supreme Court’s stance on Obamacare, the flagship health care law of Mr Obama, and Ms Barrett’s position on the law would be the focal point of their questions.

Ms Feinstein noted that Ms Barrett had criticised the Supreme Court for upholding the law in the past and warned millions would be stripped of their health insurance if it was struck down.

 “We can’t afford to go back to those days when Americans could be denied coverage or charged exorbitant amounts,” Ms Feinstein said. 

Patrick Leahy, the Democratic senator from Vermont, also focussed on healthcare in his opening statement, claiming many of his constituents were "scared" that Obamacare could be struck down. 

He held up photographs of two women from his state, one pictured in a wheelchair, and said that they were among Americans who feared what would happen without health care protections from Obamacare. 

Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the committee, defended Ms Barrett as having an outstanding academic record and urged his Democratic colleagues to show restraint. 

He told Democrats he agreed the judge was “required for the good of the nation to submit to your questions and ours”, but warned it would be a “long, contentious week” and urged them to make sure the hearings were “respectable." 

Ms Barrett, in her pre-written statement circulated the day before her appearance, stressed that she does not allow her personal preferences to shape her rulings. 

Ms Barrett wrote: “In every case, I have carefully considered the arguments presented by the parties, discussed the issues with my colleagues on the court, and done my utmost to reach the result required by the law, whatever my own preferences might be. 

“I try to remain mindful that, while my court decides thousands of cases a year, each case is the most important one to the parties involved.”