{UAH} WE ARE GETTING SNIKY REPORTS THAT THE OBAMACARE ASSASSIN IS ON THE FIRKIN MOVE

Amy Coney Barrett meets with Senator Mitch McConnell, who hopes to speed her confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett met with Mitch McConnell, the Senator majority leader, who hopes to speed her confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett met with Vice President Mike Pence and other Republican leaders on Tuesday as they hope to swiftly process Ms. Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court.CreditCredit...Pool Photo by Erin Schaff/The New York Times

By Emily Cochrane, Luke Broadwater and Hailey Fuchs

 

Judge Amy Coney Barrett began meeting Tuesday privately with top Republican senators as Republicans embark on an extraordinarily swift process to try to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the Nov. 3 election.

Three days after President Trump announced Judge Barrett as his choice to sit on the nation’s highest court, she arrived on Capitol Hill with Vice President Mike Pence to begin privately meeting with Republican senators ahead of public hearings next month. The White House then formally nominated her to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ginsburg.

Judge Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor and an appeals court judge in Chicago, is expected to remain in the stately Mansfield room for most of Tuesday as senators, including Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, shuffle in to quiz her privately.

“We truly do believe that Judge Barrett represents the best of America personally, in terms of her great intellect, her great background, and we have every confidence that as the American people learn more about Judge Amy Coney Barrett, they will be as inspired as President Trump was when he made her nomination,” Mr. Pence said, ahead of a meeting with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader and a champion of Judge Barrett.

Judge Barrett, in a dark blue dress and a single strand of pearls, stood solemnly next to Mr. McConnell, who did not answer a question about whether the judge, if confirmed to the nation’s highest court, should recuse herself from any cases related to the election.

Mr. Pence urged Democratic senators to meet with Judge Barrett, though some have already declined the opportunity. Judge Barrett’s confirmation would give conservatives a 6-3 majority on the court, and Democrats have criticized Republicans for moving at an unprecedented clip in an effort to confirm Judge Barrett before the election — especially after Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s efforts to fill an election-year vacancy on the court four years ago.

Multiple polls show that a majority of voters believe whoever wins the general election should have the ability to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ginsburg, who died on Sept. 18.

“What I’m looking for and I think what she stands for is the rule of law,” Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who chaired the Judiciary Committee when Judge Barrett was confirmed to the circuit court in 2017. Mr. Grassley, who reversed himself after previously stating that if her were still chairman he would not hold hearings on a court vacancy just before an election “because that’s what I promised the people in 2016,” said before meeting with Judge Barrett that “I don’t think there’s any doubt about her stellar qualifications.”

The White House is expected to formally nominate Judge Barrett on Tuesday, and aides and lawmakers in both parties have already begun combing through Judge Barrett’s background, legal decisions and scholarly work. “It’s the start of a very long process, but went well,” Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, told reporters. Mr. Meadows, along with Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, were also on Capitol Hill for Judge Barrett’s initial meeting with Mr. McConnell and Mr. Pence.

Opposition to her confirmation is also mounting. More than 1,500 alumni at Judge Barrett’s alma mater, Rhodes College, have signed an open letter opposing her nomination. “Many of us also were contemporaries of, friends of, and even sorority sisters of Amy Coney Barrett,” the letter reads. “However, despite the respect that many of us hold for her intellect, and even the friendship that many of us held or continue to hold with her, we are firmly and passionately opposed to her nomination.”

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