Trump says overturning Roe vs Wade ‘possible’ with Barrett on supreme court
The Guardian – By Martin Pengelly and Richard Luscombe – Sunday 27 Sep 2020
Donald Trump has said it “is certainly possible” Amy Coney Barrett will be part of a supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling which made abortion legal in the US.
“She is certainly conservative in her views, in her rulings, and we’ll have to see how that all works out but I think it will work out,” the president told Fox & Friends Weekend of his new nominee to the court, in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Asked if Barrett, if confirmed, would be part of a 6-3 conservative-liberal ruling “on a life issue”, Trump said: “It’s certainly possible. And maybe they do it in a different way. Maybe they’d give it back to the states. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Progressives and Democrats fear the Indiana appeals judge’s strict Catholicism and conservative views will colour any rulings on abortion rights arising from any of 17 cases currently making their way through the courts.
They also worry about the Affordable Care Act, which provides health insurance to millions. An attempt to strike it down is due before the court on 10 November.
Republicans in the Senate are rushing to confirm Barrett before election day, 3 November. Democrats oppose that timetable and are backed by public polling which shows majorities saying the next president should choose the replacement for the liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died aged 87 last week.
In the short term, such polling does not matter. Democrats have few options. On Sunday the Senate minority whip, Dick Durbin of Illinois, told ABC’s This Week: “We can slow it down perhaps a matter of hours, maybe days at the most, but we can’t stop the outcome.”
Shoring up support from evangelical groups, whose leaders he met before unveiling Barrett, Trump has committed to choosing anti-abortion justices.
He told Fox that in meetings with Barrett, he “didn’t discuss certain concepts and certain things. And some people say you shouldn’t. I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t. But I decided not to do it. And I think it gives her freedom to do what she has to do. She has to make rulings. But I think she’s going to make a lot of people very proud.”
When nominating Kavanaugh, Trump was famously reported to have said he was “saving” Barrett “for Ginsburg”.
PS It’s really amazing that a President that has been impeached is still making decisions that effects so many people?
Posted By Teri Perticone
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