Good morning from Capitol Hill where I’ll be in the small pool of reporters inside the room this week for Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination hearing. Follow for live updates. 
This'll be my first time working not from my kitchen table in almost six months. Feels great to be back in the room.
Note that senators, staff and media are all masked but there's very little social distancing happening.
Reporters are spaced out but senate folks are mingling freely.
Reporters are spaced out but senate folks are mingling freely.
Sen. Mike Lee who tested positive for Covid-19 on Oct. 3 just took his seat at Barrett's nomination hearing. No sign yet of Thom Tillis who also tested positive.
Barrett at her seat now. Graham says he doubts there’s another room in the country that’s more CDC compliant.
"Senator Lee is back," Graham says adding the GOP member has been cleared by his physician to attend.
We're kicking off with opening statements from the members, followed by introductions by Indiana senators Braun and Young.
Chairman says that Ginsburg was confirmed 96-3 adding "those are days that have since passed. I regret that."
Graham then notes that Scalia got 97 votes.
Graham then notes that Scalia got 97 votes.
"The Thurgood Marshall of that cause," Graham says of Ginsburg's work for women from the bench.
Barrett is wearing a mask, so is her family who is seated about six feet to her right in a small cluster.
Barrett’s family is behind her, husband Jesse and 7 children. Graham notes that two are adopted. All are masked.
Graham: “This is gonna be a long contentious week."
Sen. Feinstein zeroing in on the Affordable Care Act going before SCOTUS on Nov. 10.
Says she hopes to hear from Barrett about her statement that Chief Justice Roberts pushed the landmark health care law "beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute."
Says she hopes to hear from Barrett about her statement that Chief Justice Roberts pushed the landmark health care law "beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute."
Dems unveiling photos of Americans protected under the ACA. Feinstein says the country can’t afford to go back to the days when people were denied health care protection.
FEINSTEIN: “Simply put, I believe we should not be moving forward on this nomination, not until the election has ended and the next president has taken office."
Democrats launched into this week's hearing without any of the firework that we saw during the outset of Justice Brett Kavanaugh's hearing.
In some ways today feels just like any other judicial nomination hearing with senators working their way through opening statements in order of seniority...
...But then this isn't business as usual. Supreme Court nomination hearings are typically packed events and today not one member of the public is in the room.
Press is limited to a very small group of reporters and photographers compared to Kavanaugh's hearing.
Press is limited to a very small group of reporters and photographers compared to Kavanaugh's hearing.
Then there's the shadow of Covid-19 hanging over the room. Everyone is masked and senators are spaced out six feet.
Sen. Chuck Grassley: "Judge you'll no doubt be asked on how you'll rule on questions and issues...I expect that you'll follow the example of Justice Ginsburg" offering no "forecast or hints" on how she or he will vote "because that's the role of a judge" unbiased.
Sen. Patrick Leahy up now as the first senator to participate remotely notes that two of the senators (Lee and Tillis) are emerging from quarantine.
Leahy saying the GOP is trying to accomplish in the courts what the party couldn't do in Congress including overturning the ACA.
"These are real people" the Democratic senator says about photos of Americans spread out behind the dais.
"These are real people" the Democratic senator says about photos of Americans spread out behind the dais.
Sen. Mike Lee who tested positive for Covid-19 less than two weeks ago up now speaking without a mask.
Graham welcomes him back.
Graham welcomes him back.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says that the White House hasn't done contract tracing on GOP senators and staff ahead of today's hearing and that the proceeding is a microcosm of Trump's inability to respond responsibly to the pandemic.
Note Whitehouse is present in the room to make his statement. So far all the senators are complying with the mask rule in between their remarks.
Barrett has had her large black mask on for at least an hour now since she entered the room.
Sen. Ted Cruz jumps into his opening statement as the 2nd senator and 1st GOP member to participate remotely today.
Cruz was at the White House Rose Garden event where Trump announced Barrett's nomination, tested negative for Covid-19 but has been quarantining.
Barrett's husband and school-aged children just exited the hearing room and seem to be holding in an outside hallway.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the Covid-19 outbreak is personal for her after her husband tested positive and her 92-year-old father.
She's giving her opening statement from inside the room today.
She's giving her opening statement from inside the room today.
Note that Barrett's family was wearing masks when they exited just now. Her kids are young and we're nearly two hours into today's hearing.
Sen. Ben Sasse up now defending Barrett's faith.
“We don’t have religious tests. This committee isn’t in the business of deciding whether the ‘dogma lives too loudly within' someone," he says, quoting Feinstein at the nominee's 7th Circuit confirmation hearing.
“We don’t have religious tests. This committee isn’t in the business of deciding whether the ‘dogma lives too loudly within' someone," he says, quoting Feinstein at the nominee's 7th Circuit confirmation hearing.
Sasse checking off all the GOP talking points in his opening: faith, judicial activism and court packing.
Sen. Josh Hawley praises Barrett's kids for sitting quietly for so long during the opening statements.
Correction to an earlier tweet: Feinstein shared the story of a constituent named Krystyna Munro Garcia, not Kimberly Dickens who is pictured on a poster behind the second dais in the room today.
Sen. Josh Hawley saying that Barrett is under attack for her Catholic faith and that religious liberty is under attack in the nomination hearing.
Hawley says Democrats have engaged in bigotry questioning Barrett's Catholic faith.
Sen. Thom Tillis up now participating by videoconference. He tested positive for Covid-19 but appears in good health.
His video feed is freezing up at times, audio is uninterrupted, though repeated email notification are momentarily drowning out his voice.
His video feed is freezing up at times, audio is uninterrupted, though repeated email notification are momentarily drowning out his voice.
We're in recess until about 12:20. Senators will finish up opening statements, then Barrett will be sworn in for her opening.
Barrett takes her seat and we’re back at it.
Sen. Joni Ernst accuses Dems of attacking Barrett's faith.
Notably, her fellow Republican Sen. Kennedy when asked during the recess if any Dems on the committee spoke about the nominee's faith said the question was an effort to get him to attack his colleagues & didn't answer.
Notably, her fellow Republican Sen. Kennedy when asked during the recess if any Dems on the committee spoke about the nominee's faith said the question was an effort to get him to attack his colleagues & didn't answer.
Sen. Cory Booker up now says that 20 million Americans would lose health care if the Supreme Court overturns the ACA during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Booker says Trump explicitly said he would only appoint SCOTUS nominees who are willing to overturn Roe v. Wade.
"He said it clearly. We should believe him."
"He said it clearly. We should believe him."
Sen. Mike Crapo is sitting maskless with his opening statement in hand waiting for Booker to finish up so he can have his turn.
Booker says there's nothing normal about today's hearing and that Republicans have failed to take proper safety precautions today.
"The American people should decide," Booker says three times as he closes out his opening statement saying he won't be voting to confirm Barrett.
Sen. Kamala Harris participating remotely now from her Senate office but slowed down by tech issues, now fixed.
Harris calls today's closed-door hearing during a pandemic of an airborne virus "reckless."
Harris is participating remotely, only the second Democrat so far.
Harris says Republicans have realized that the ACA is too popular to repeal in Congress and now is looking to SCOTUS to "do their dirty work."
Small eyebrow raise from Barrett just now when Harris said that a big reason that the GOP is rushing is to ensure that the nominee will be on the court "to ensure they can strip away the protections" of the ACA.
Sen. John Kennedy up now says that the nomination hearing for Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a "freak show," comparing it to the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars.
Graham at the closing of senators' statements says he tested negative for Covid-19 a week ago Friday and will not be told by political opponents to be tested.
Graham also said that the room is CDC complaint and the Architect of the Capitol measured out the room for social distancing.
"I made a decision to try to make the room as safe as possible but to come to work," he adds.
"I made a decision to try to make the room as safe as possible but to come to work," he adds.
Sen. Todd Young like many Republicans today praises Barrett for being the first mother of school-aged children who will serve as a justice on the Supreme Court.
The kids are back in the room now by the way.
The kids are back in the room now by the way.
Sen. Mike Braun describes Barrett as "a legal titan who drives a minivan."
The American people will hear directly from Barrett shortly, after Braun finishes up and a Norte Dame professor speaks.
We may be jumping straight to Barrett who is taking off her mask now, professor couldn't connect.
Barret sworn in to testify beginning with an opening statement.
Barrett says she's used to being in a group of nine -- "my family."
Barrett one page into her opening statement is sticking to her written remarks:
Barrett: " When I went to college, it never occurred to me that anyone would consider girls to be less capable than boys."
Many senators of both parties could be seen smiling through masks at Barrett's family as she introduced her husband and seven children.
Barrett says Justice Scalia "was devoted to his family, resolute in his beliefs, and fearless of criticism."
Leaning into her reputation as an originalist, Barrett says the courts "are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life."
While on the Seventh Circuit Barret says she has "done my utmost to reach the result required by the law, whatever my own preferences might be."
Barrett says she was nine years old when Justice Sandra Day O’Connor joined SCOTUS, calling her "a model of grace and dignity."
"As a final note" Barrett thanks everyone who has been praying for her.
No mention of the Covid-19 pandemic during her opening statement.
No mention of the Covid-19 pandemic during her opening statement.
Okay and now Notre Dame Law School professor Patricia O’Hara, joking that her statements on Barrett are anticlimactic because the senators have already heard from the most important person in the room.
"We have a couple long days ahead of us, so get some rest," Graham says before gaveling out today's hearing.
Back at 9AM tomorrow.
Back at 9AM tomorrow.
Democrats outside the hearing room saying the Senate should be passing covid relief rather than engaging in a “sham of a hearing.”
Sen. Klobuchar says that she is proud of how many women there are in Congress — “But that doesn’t mean that we have to agree with every woman that’s nominated.”
Q was on Rs accusations that Ds were attacking Barrett as a woman.
Q was on Rs accusations that Ds were attacking Barrett as a woman.
Sen. Hirono points out that Republicans chose their two female GOP senators to accuse Dems of targeting Barrett as a female jurist.
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