Radio Recap – LIVE: Judge Barrett Faces 1st Round of Questioning From Senate Judiciary

By 

Jordan Sekulow

|
October 13, 2020

3 min read

Supreme Court

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Judge Amy Coney Barrett faces the first day of questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On today’s Jay Sekulow Live, we discussed today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Judge Amy Coney Barrett is facing questions for the first time from both the Democrat and Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

These are really the key days of the hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett. What we are seeing is something very different from her last confirmation hearing. In her last confirmation hearing, when she was appointed the Seventh Circuit, you had her faith being discussed. Senator Dick Durbin asked her if she considered herself, making up a new term, “Orthodox Catholic.” I don’t think that exists. There’s Orthodox Judaism and there’s Christian Orthodox, which is its own branch of the Christian faith. What Senator Durbin was getting at, essentially, was asking her if she takes her faith seriously, which is a problem with the secular elites, specifically on the Left.

That was the real reasoning for Senator Durbin’s line of questioning during Judge Barrett’s circuit court confirmation, as well as Senator Feinstein’s now famous “The dogma lives loudly within you,” line. To be perfectly clear, our Constitution does not allow anyone to be judged on the basis of their faith.

The line of questioning in this hearing has been mostly about the Affordable Care Act from the Democrats – so far. There’s a specific provision that’s working its way through the courts. Of course she’s not going to answer that, because she would be sitting on the Supreme Court by the time it gets there. It does seem like they have thus far taken a much softer tone this time with Judge Barrett. They failed last time and are reaping what they sowed.

ACLJ Director of Government Affairs Thann Bennett made the following point:

I think they took their best shots the last time around and it backfired on them in a lot of different ways, including politically, so they have decided to make this a hearing about the Affordable Care Act rather than about Judge Barrett. Probably a good move on their part. My takeaways from today: she’s clearly the smartest person in the room but she’s also humble enough to repeatedly acknowledge the strict limits that are on a judge.

She should be the smartest person in the room. She’s been nominated for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. She’s been given a notepad, just as everyone who testifies is given. She has no notes with her. She’s doing this all from memory, answering every question about specific decisions she’s made in the past, her judicial philosophy, and analysis on the spot with no notes. That’s impressive.

Judge Barrett demonstrated her impartiality and views on the role of a judge when she said to Senator Graham:

Judges just can’t wake up one day and say I have an agenda, I like guns, I hate guns, I like abortion, I hate abortion, and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world. You have to wait for cases and controversies, which is the language of the Constitution, to wind their way through the process.

Judge Barrett is a superb nominee for the Supreme Court and will be a great justice.

The full broadcast is complete with much more analysis and discussion by our team of today’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing and the questioning of Judge Amy Coney Barrett by the members.

Watch the full broadcast below.