Thread by @Hegemommy

Good morning, Twitter! I am here to live-tweet through much of the Amy Coney Barrett hearing today.

It's going to be a long day so grab some snacks, some water, and stretch as needed. Here's what is in store

Each member of the Judiciary Committee will get 30 minutes to question ACB then a round of 20 minute questions. All over the course of the next two days

Lindsay Graham opened today's hearing complaining about the Affordable Care Act and that California gets more money than South Carolina

Graham is now complaining about all the ways attempted Republican sabotage of the ACA has made health care access a mess

Graham's complaints about bureaucrats making decisions about health care is especially rich since we're gonna spend the day not talking about abortion while we talk about abortion

First question by Graham is on originalism.

Asks Barrett if she's a female Scalia. ACB says yes, basically

Barrett says if she's confirmed though you won't get a Justice Scalia, you'll get a Justice Barrett

Graham now addresses all the 'young conservative women' out there and hopes ACB shows that there's a seat at the table for women like here

Graham now asks about Brown v Board of Education and the value of "super-precedent"

Graham is trying to steer ACB's answer here so that she doesn't actually say Fed Soc lawyers are attacking affirmative action

As is the Trump administration

The Department of Justice recently sued Yale over its admissions policy that's why Brown matters now

justice.gov/opa/pr/justice…

Second question on precedent is on guns.

ACB says judges can't just come in and start issuing rulings. This is basic civics and bad faith questioning

Next question is on abortion. Graham wants to talk about ending "abortion on demand in the fifth month"

ACB says she'll listen to both sides. on this issue.

Graham says Roe and Casey is up for debate, unlike Brown v Board

Graham complaining about Citizens United-- which he is doing right now-- is indeed the weirdest plot twist of the election

Graham moves on to marriage equality and how theoretically that challenge could find its way back to SCOTUS

Graham wants to talk about substantive due process. This is legal wonky stuff but its all about the right to privacy. Conservatives hate it

The right to privacy includes your right to use birth control, have sex with your partner outside of 'traditional' marriage, and of course terminate a pregnancy

Sorry had to deal with some stuff! Came back. toACB not committing to recusing from the ACA case

Graham back on his "conservative women need a seat at the table" schtick

Feinstein up now and says its wonderful to see her here and asks ACB to re-introduce her family

Feinstein starts with abortion and this is all silly because we know where ACB is on all of this

ACB won't say if she says Casey was wrongly decided because its' still up for debate

Feinstein's insistence on treating this like a normal confirmation hearing is such a disaster

Here is the case that ACB is talking about right now. There's a lot of 'virtuousness' in Barrett's jurisprudence

rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2020/1…

Feinstein asking ACB about California v Texas, the ACA challenge the Court hears next month and is trying to get ACB to say *anything* of substance and it's just not happening

Feinstein keeps trying to get ACB to say she's more liberal than Scalia and that dog just don't hunt

Grassley is up now, likely will yet at the clouds

Grassley says that because ACB is a mom it's wrong to say she doesn't care about health care

Reminder: Republicans are trying to set a motherhood trap

rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2020/0…

I went to refill my coffee back to the programming

Sen Leahy up now and also thanks ACB for introducing her family and I continue to scream inside my heart

Leahy monologuing on Barrett and overturning the ACA and if ANYONE can explain to me how this is worthwhile at all

Democrats are gonna waste all day trying to get ACB to answer anything of substance when they could be doing literally anything else

All that Democrats are doing right now is confusing the matter to the public by participating in this charade. It's hard to argue the process is illegitimate when you thank the nominee for bringing her kids to it

Leahy asks ACB if she believes IVF is tantamount to manslaughter and she dodges

Leahy asks ACB if she agrees with Obergefell that same sex couples have the right to marry and ACB dodges

Cornyn up now and cracks a joke about talking about severability with the president on the golf course which is an ACA joke and then without skipping a beat goes on the offense as the real victim because Democrats are mean

Cornyn giving ACB a lot of space here to sound reasonable but the answers she's giving are dripping with evangelical double-speak

Okay I have to bounce out for just a little bit but I will be back!

Apparently Mike Lee is talking

Oh and spreading lies about abortion I see

Meanwhile Sheldon Whitehouse has an entire goddamn presentation with poster board on how Roe is in danger

Okay so. Late term abortion isn't a term. And later abortion is a medical procedure that happens for lots of reasons none of which are "for funsies"

Reasons why a patient needs a later abortion

- abortion restrictions pushed them later in term
- lethal fetal diagnosis in the second trimester
- failed miscarriage
-none of your goddamn business

Anyway Ted Cruz is now yelling about Democrats spending billions in dark money and if ACB speaks any foreign languages

Ted Cruz brings up ACB's adopted children and I'll just recommend everyone read Kathryn Joyce on evangelicals and heir gospel of adoption

amazon.com/Child-Catchers…

A-Klo up now and reminds everyone that Joe Biden is Catholic.

Also calls for a reality check that "this isn't normal"

Angry A-Klo is a good surrogate right now. Her anger is real and needs to be channeled

Ugh 2020 making me be nice about A-Klo

Also I think if we leave A-Klo questioning ACB we're gonna see more cracks in ACB's demeanor. ACB is getting a little salty and A-Klo could weaponize that midwestern 'nice' back at her

I don't want to push a cat fight narrative because I hate that shit but also this is how white midwestern ladies start to toe up is all lI'm saying

Ben Sasse is gonna rehabilitate the witness now and clean up the murder scene

I need a Ben Sasse civics lesson disinfectant plz

Ben Sasse's jacket is kind of perfectly blending in to this chair and giving him a disembodied head type of look

So Sen. Coons is up now and also says these aren't normal times and yes but here Democrats are kind of engaging with a process that suggests times are not THAT abnormal

Coons getting ACB to pick a fight with Roberts is a little bit of fun though

Oh goodie Coons promises tomorrow we get to drill down into 'reliance interests' in the ACA

This is important but I'd also be fine with Dems boycotting tomorrow

Coons also brings up Trump's statements that he needs a ninth justice to hand him the election and also that he wont commit to a peaceful transfer of power

ACB is weaponizing white womanhood here when pressed on recusal by Coons and it's really something to witness in real time

The amount of offense ACB took when pressed by Coons if she was hostile to the ACA is the amount of offense that only certain kinds of white women can muster

Josh Hawley and the "Democrat colleagues" shit is not just tired it's lazy even by Hawley's standards

Also do Josh Hawley and Ben Sasse use the same voice coach?

Oooh here comes Josh Hawley rushing to the defense of Alliance Defending Freedom a christian extremist litigation group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center

splcenter.org/fighting-hate/…

Here's background on the Blackstone Institute ACB is referencing

rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2014/0…

Josh Hawley continues to suggest that by questioning ACB's legal reasoning Democrats are trying to impose a religious test for public office and that's not how it works

Good grief Josh Hawley just wont stop talking

Okay well Hawley finally stopped talking and how we are in a mini break so time to stretch

We're back from the break

I mean in theory we are. Some of us are still on break in our hearts

Blumenthal trying to get ACB to say Roe was correctly decided and she just wont which I know isn't a surprise but still worth pointing out

Blumenthal pressing ACB on whether she'd uphold a law that would make IVF a crime based on a belief that life begins at conception (which ACB holds) and she wont answer

After refusing to answer and then when pressed some more, ACB insists that saying life begins at conception is nothing more than a pro life view and I don't think she knows how much she just acknowledged there

Tillis is up now and is very mad about some tweets

Republicans are very worried about Medicaid for all the same way they are worried about court reform and the Green New Deal so make of that what you will

Sen Hirono up next. Starts off by noting her ongoing objection to having these hearings during a pandemic

I had to take a break but just came back to Sen Ernst announcing she is pro-life because that was a question or something?

If I close my eyes and only listen to Sen Ernst all I hear is Kirstin Wiig from the SNL 'Schweaty Balls" skit

Sen. Ernst reading a love letter to ACB from national pro life orgs