Republicans and Democrats have offered sharply divergent arguments in a Supreme Court confirmation fight whose outcome is likely to steer the court to the right for years, vying to define Judge Amy Coney Barrett and frame the political stakes of President Donald Trump's rush to install her before he faces voters.
In a marathon day of opening statements, Democrats on Monday assailed Ms Barrett as a conservative ideologue who would overturn the Affordable Care Act and abortion rights, and whose nomination amounted to an illegitimate power grab by a president in the last days before the election.
Republicans steered clear of addressing her anticipated effect on the court, instead promoting her sterling qualifications and accusing Democrats of unjustly attacking her because of her Catholic faith.
Ms Barrett, a previous Notre Dame law professor, appeals court judge and mother of seven, sat in silence for much of the day, her expressions rendered unreadable by a black mask she had donned in accordance with the Senate Judiciary Committee's coronavirus protocol.
When she spoke, she tried to avoid being pulled into the political or policy fray. "Courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life," she said. "The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people. The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try."
The two parties' duelling approaches reflected how confirmation hearingsa combustible endeavour in normal timesare being shaped and charged by the looming election.
With Republicans confident they had the votes to confirm Ms Barrett and cement a lasting 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, they sought to energise their base by portraying Democrats' opposition to Ms Barrett as anti-religion while reassuring wary moderates by highlighting her status as a working mother who had risen to the highest echelons of the law.
"This is probably not about persuading each other unless something really dramatic happens," Senator Lindsey Graham, the committee's chairman, said as he opened the hearing. "All the Republicans will vote yes; all the Democrats will vote no."
Republicans were so confident they said they would expedite an already accelerated undertaking by starting the process of voting in the Judiciary Committee tomorrow morning, before the final day of confirmation hearings wraps up.
Democrats, returning to the issue that helped them win control of the House in the 2018 midterm polls, focused on what Ms Barrett's confirmation could mean for the health care law, which Mr Trump and Republicans have pressed to repeal. They filled the hearing room with large posters of Americans who had benefited from the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for pre-existing medical conditions, and offered anecdotes to illustrate what voters had to lose should it be invalidated, as the Mr Trump administration is arguing it should be.
"The truth is, America, that this judicial nominee has made her view so clear, and this president is trying to put her in a position of power to make decisions about your lives," said Senator Amy Klobuchar. "The Affordable Care Act protects you from getting kicked off of your insurance. That is on the line."
Ms Barrett, appearing in the room with six of her children and husband, stressed her impartiality and personal story. Americans "deserve an independent Supreme Court", she said in a statement.
At 48, she could sit on the court for decades, with the potential to bolster a conservative majority that could have broad effects on American life, including civil rights, the powers of businesses, the ability of the government to regulate them and myriad other issues. For all the partisan rancour, senators raised no doubts about her credentials.
The hearing, playing out during a pandemic that has killed nearly 215,000 Americans, was historic in other ways. It was the first Supreme Court hearing to feature videoconferencing, with senators, including Senator Kamala Harrisa Democratic nominee for VPparticipating remotely and underscoring the risk of infection.
Democrats sought to capitalise on the juxtaposition, raging against Republicans' insistence on holding a hearing in the middle of a deadly pandemic that has sickened the President and at least two Republican members of the committee after a White House event Mr Trump held the previous month to present Ms Barrett as his nominee.
NYTIMES