Barrett Doubles Down On Evasive Answers, Raising Questions About Birth Control, Medicare, Democracy, and More
Barrett Doubles Down On Evasive Answers, Raising Questions About Birth Control, Medicare, Democracy, and More
On her second day of questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Amy Coney Barrett continued to duck and dodge on basic, straightforward questions — raising yet more serious concerns about what she has to hide and why she cannot even address questions that past nominees have answered directly.
Barrett entered the hearings with a remarkably clear track record on Roe v. Wade and the Affordable Care Act. She not only failed to address either of those issues but also raised a host of questions about her commitment to basic constitutional rights and democratic principles.
Here are some of the questions that Amy Coney Barrett refused or failed to answer over the course of her hearings.
- Barrett refused to say if the Supreme Court case that protects access to birth control, Griswold v. Connecticut, was correctly decided — despite the fact that other Republican-appointed justices reaffirmed it during their confirmation hearings.
- Barrett refused not once, not twice, but three times to affirm the basic facts that climate change is real and caused by humans.
- Barrett refused to admit that racial discrimination in voting exists.
- Barrett refused to say that poll taxes are unconstitutional.
- Barrett refused to say whether the Voting Rights Act reflected a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”
- Barrett refused to say if landmark LGBTQ+ rights cases Lawrence v. Texas or Obergefell v. Hodges were correctly decided.
- Barrett refused to say if the First Amendment assures a reporter’s right to protect a confidential source or if she agrees that an inability to protect sources makes reporters less likely to obtain information of importance to the public.
- Barrett refused to say whether it would be constitutional to criminalize IVF, as a group she has supported in the past proposes doing.
