TRUMP’S SUPREME COURT PICK AVOIDS QUESTIONS ON ABORTION

President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett said on Tuesday at her US Senate confirmation hearing that her religious views would not affect her decisions on the bench and declined to say whether she believes landmark rulings legalizing abortion and gay marriage nationwide were properly decided, Lawrence Hurley, Patricia Zengerle and Andrew Chung reported for Reuters. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing also presented Barrett with a chance to respond to Democratic lawmakers who have been unified in opposing her on what they say would be her potential role in undermining the Obamacare healthcare law and its protection for patients with pre-existing conditions. Trump has asked the Senate to confirm Barrett, a conservative federal appeals court judge, before the Nov. 3 election in which he is seeking a second term in office. 

Barrett, facing questioning by senators for the first time, declined to say if she would step aside from any election-related cases that could reach the court. She said she would follow standard recusal rules that give individual justices the final say. Barrett said no one at the White House sought a commitment from her on how she would rule. “It would be a gross violation of judicial independence for me to make any such commitment or for me to be asked about that case,” Barrett told the committee. 

She also declined to say whether she would consider stepping aside from an upcoming Obamacare case, as Democrats have requested. “That’s not a question I can answer in the abstract,” she added. Barrett noted that the new case the court is hearing on Nov. 10 is on a different legal issue as two previous Supreme Court rulings that upheld Obamacare, which she had criticized.