Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court Nomination Hearings Begin

Oct. 12--As Judge Amy Coney Barrett heads in front of senators on Monday for the start of hearings in the Supreme Court nomination process, Massachusetts Democrats on Sunday continued to rail against the approval of the conservative judge.

"Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump will stop at nothing to jam a nominee on to the court who will not only rip health care away from millions of Americans and overturn Roe v. Wade, but will also undermine the constitutional rights of the LGBTQ community," said Sen. Edward Markey in front of the John Adams Courthouse Sunday, where a 2003 decision made Massachusetts the first state in the country to guarantee same-sex marriage equality.

The nomination of the 48-year-old judge, who now sits on the Seventh Circuit, will be before the Senate Judiciary Committee two weeks after a White House event introducing her that has since been connected to several coronavirus cases.

Republicans and President Trump want to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the presidential election and before a challenge to the Affordable Care Act is heard by the Supreme Court.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a tweet Sunday that Barrett was nominated, "to undermine health care and turn back the clock on reproductive rights."

Neither Warren nor Markey sit on the committee chaired by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

When Ginsburg died last month, Democrats immediately pushed back at the idea of Republicans approving a nominee before the election after the GOP in 2016 did not allow President Barack Obama's nominee to get a hearing.

But Republicans are moving forward with the nomination process on Monday, even after more than two dozen people linked to the Sept. 26 Rose Garden event contracted COVID-19. Among those cases are Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah, both members of the committee.

Barrett will draw on faith and family in her opening remarks for the hearings, according to a copy of her prepared statement released Sunday. She says courts "should not try" to make policy, but leave those decisions to the government's political branches.

Barrett says she has resolved to maintain the same perspective as her mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was "devoted to his family, resolute in his beliefs, and fearless of criticism."

"When I write an opinion resolving a case, I read every word from the perspective of the losing party," she says. "I ask myself how would I view the decision if one of my children was the party I was ruling against: Even though I would not like the result, would I understand that the decision was fairly reasoned and grounded in the law? That is the standard I set for myself in every case, and it is the standard I will follow as long as I am a judge on any court."

Herald wire services contributed to this story.

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