1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:04,733 JUDY WOODRUFF: The questions have been coming all day, literally, for U.S. Supreme Court 2 00:00:04,733 --> 00:00:09,733 nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have pressed for 3 00:00:11,166 --> 00:00:13,866 answers, with mixed results. John Yang begins our coverage. 4 00:00:13,866 --> 00:00:18,866 JOHN YANG: Front and center in Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearing 5 00:00:20,300 --> 00:00:23,233 today, some of the country's biggest hot button issues. 6 00:00:23,233 --> 00:00:26,266 AMY CONEY BARRETT, Supreme Court Justice Nominee: Judges can't just wake up one day and say, 7 00:00:26,266 --> 00:00:30,800 I have an agenda, I like guns, I hate guns, I like abortion, I hate abortion, and you 8 00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:32,800 have to wait for cases and controversies. 9 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:35,800 SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA): It's distressing not to get a straight answer. 10 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:40,333 JOHN YANG: Tensions rose as senators pressed Judge Barrett, a mentee of the late Justice 11 00:00:40,333 --> 00:00:44,833 Antonin Scalia, on how Justice Barrett might affect Americans' lives. 12 00:00:44,833 --> 00:00:48,233 AMY CONEY BARRETT: My personal views don't have anything to do with how I would decide 13 00:00:48,233 --> 00:00:53,133 cases, and I don't want anybody to be unclear about that. If I'm confirmed, you would not 14 00:00:53,133 --> 00:00:56,500 be getting Justice Scalia. You would be getting Justice Barrett. 15 00:00:56,500 --> 00:01:00,833 JOHN YANG: Under questioning from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South 16 00:01:00,833 --> 00:01:03,633 Carolina, Barrett talked about some of those views. 17 00:01:03,633 --> 00:01:08,200 AMY CONEY BARRETT: I have tried to be on a media blackout for the sake of my mental health, 18 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:13,200 but you can't keep yourself walled off from everything. And I'm aware of a lot of the 19 00:01:14,333 --> 00:01:16,366 caricatures that are floating around. 20 00:01:16,366 --> 00:01:20,033 So, I think what I would like to say in response to that question is that, look, I have made 21 00:01:22,733 --> 00:01:27,433 distinct choices. I have decided to pursue a career and have a large family. I have a 22 00:01:27,433 --> 00:01:31,866 multiracial family. Our faith is important to us. 23 00:01:31,866 --> 00:01:36,866 All of those things are true, but they are my choices. And in my personal interactions 24 00:01:38,900 --> 00:01:40,933 with people, I mean, I have a life brimming with people who have made different choices. 25 00:01:40,933 --> 00:01:44,666 And I have never tried in my personal life to impose my choices on them. 26 00:01:44,666 --> 00:01:49,033 SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Can you set aside whatever Catholic beliefs you have regarding 27 00:01:49,033 --> 00:01:51,133 any issue before you? 28 00:01:51,133 --> 00:01:54,700 AMY CONEY BARRETT: I can. I have done that in my time on the Seventh Circuit. If I stay 29 00:01:54,700 --> 00:01:58,366 on the Seventh Circuit, I will continue to do that. If I'm confirmed to the Supreme Court, 30 00:01:58,366 --> 00:02:00,566 I will do that still. 31 00:02:00,566 --> 00:02:04,333 SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: When it comes to your personal views about this topic, do you own 32 00:02:05,333 --> 00:02:06,566 a gun? 33 00:02:06,566 --> 00:02:08,566 AMY CONEY BARRETT: We do own a gun. 34 00:02:08,566 --> 00:02:12,200 SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: All right. Do you think you could fairly decide a case even though 35 00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:13,200 you own a gun? 36 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:15,200 AMY CONEY BARRETT: Yes. 37 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:19,200 JOHN YANG: In 2019, as a federal appeals court judge, Barrett wrote that convicted felons 38 00:02:20,633 --> 00:02:23,266 should not automatically be denied the right to own a gun. 39 00:02:23,266 --> 00:02:28,266 Like previous nominees, Barrett declined to say if the landmark case Roe vs. Wade, which 40 00:02:30,566 --> 00:02:33,566 guaranteed the right to an abortion, was wrongly decided, a view she expressed as a law professor. 41 00:02:35,500 --> 00:02:40,066 Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the panel's top Democrat, questioned her on the 42 00:02:40,066 --> 00:02:42,066 issue. 43 00:02:42,066 --> 00:02:46,033 SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: So let me try again. Do you agree with Justice Scalia's view that 44 00:02:46,033 --> 00:02:48,033 Roe was wrongly decided? 45 00:02:48,033 --> 00:02:52,966 AMY CONEY BARRETT: I have no agenda to try to overrule Casey. I have an agenda to stick 46 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:56,533 to the rule of law and decide cases as they come. 47 00:02:56,533 --> 00:03:00,966 JOHN YANG: Later, under questioning by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, Barrett said Roe is 48 00:03:00,966 --> 00:03:05,200 not so widely accepted to be considered a super-precedent. 49 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,766 AMY CONEY BARRETT: I'm answering a lot of questions about Roe, which I think indicates 50 00:03:08,766 --> 00:03:13,766 that Roe doesn't fall in that category. And scholars across the spectrum say that doesn't 51 00:03:16,133 --> 00:03:18,966 mean that Roe should be overruled. But, descriptively, it does mean that it's not a case that everyone's 52 00:03:20,133 --> 00:03:22,200 accepted and doesn't call for its overruling. 53 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:25,900 SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who are fearmongering 54 00:03:25,900 --> 00:03:28,400 on this... 55 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:31,233 JOHN YANG: Republicans pushed back on Democrats' arguments that a Justice Barrett would help 56 00:03:31,233 --> 00:03:36,233 a 6-3 conservative court overturn the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. The court is to hear a challenge 57 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:39,866 to the law on November 10. 58 00:03:39,866 --> 00:03:43,333 SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: All of you over there want to impose Obamacare in South Carolina. 59 00:03:43,333 --> 00:03:45,366 We don't want it. 60 00:03:45,366 --> 00:03:49,833 JOHN YANG: As a law professor, Barrett criticized Chief Justice John Roberts' reasoning for 61 00:03:51,733 --> 00:03:54,933 his 2012 ruling that upheld central pillars of Barack Obama's health care law, writing 62 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:00,666 in a 2017 law review article that he pushed "the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible 63 00:04:02,066 --> 00:04:04,100 meaning to save the statute." 64 00:04:04,100 --> 00:04:08,266 AMY CONEY BARRETT: I was not attacking Chief Justice Roberts or impugning his character 65 00:04:08,266 --> 00:04:12,266 or anything of that sort. It was an academic critique. 66 00:04:12,266 --> 00:04:17,266 And I have not made any commitments or deals or anything like that. I'm not here on a mission 67 00:04:19,133 --> 00:04:22,933 to destroy the Affordable Care Act. I'm just here to apply the law. 68 00:04:22,933 --> 00:04:27,566 JOHN YANG: Barrett declined to say if she would recuse herself from either the ACA case, 69 00:04:27,566 --> 00:04:30,800 which President Trump says he hopes results in overturning the law... 70 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:34,000 AMY CONEY BARRETT: Well, Senator, recusal itself is a legal issue. 71 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,600 JOHN YANG: ... or from any case that might arise from the presidential election. 72 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:42,600 AMY CONEY BARRETT: I have had no conversation with the president or any of his staff on 73 00:04:43,333 --> 00:04:45,433 how I might rule. 74 00:04:45,433 --> 00:04:48,800 JOHN YANG: She also sidestepped questions about the president's comments about the election's 75 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:50,800 fairness. 76 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:53,566 SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Does the Constitution give the president of the United States the 77 00:04:53,566 --> 00:04:58,566 authority to unilaterally delay a general election under any circumstances? Does federal 78 00:05:00,366 --> 00:05:02,433 law? 79 00:05:02,433 --> 00:05:05,766 AMY CONEY BARRETT: If that question ever came before me, I would need to hear arguments 80 00:05:05,766 --> 00:05:10,766 from the litigants and read briefs and consult with my law clerks and talk to my colleagues 81 00:05:11,866 --> 00:05:13,966 and go through the opinion writing process. 82 00:05:13,966 --> 00:05:18,966 So, if I give off-the-cuff answers, then I would be, basically, a legal pundit, and I 83 00:05:20,333 --> 00:05:22,433 don't think we want judges to be legal pundits. 84 00:05:22,433 --> 00:05:27,000 JOHN YANG: Republicans like John Cornyn of Texas strongly defended her. 85 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:31,100 SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Attacking somebody for their faith and suggesting that that disqualifies 86 00:05:31,100 --> 00:05:36,100 them from holding a public office is the attack that is being made on judicial independence. 87 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:44,800 JOHN YANG: Tomorrow, Barrett is to face another long day of questions from senators. 88 00:05:45,833 --> 00:05:47,200 For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm John Yang.