(Typos corrected)
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – At the beginning of the hearing of the Conservative candidate Amy Coney Barrett for the US Supreme Court, the Democrats in the Senate made health care a central issue. They pointed out, among other things, that the lawyer Barrett criticized the arguments of the Supreme Court in recent years, with the President’s health reform Barack Obama had been confirmed as constitutional. “The health care of millions of Americans is at stake with this nomination,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein on Monday.
The health reform enforced, among other things, that Americans may not be denied health insurance because of previous illnesses. The Democrats are now pointing out, among other things, that with a cancellation of the reform law before the Supreme Court, consequences of a corona infection could also count as a previous illness that stands in the way of health insurance.
president Donald Trump and Senate Republicans want to take Barrett to the Supreme Court before the November 3rd presidential election. The President made no secret of the fact that he was also interested in possible legal disputes regarding the counting of votes in the election.
Trump had nominated Barrett to succeed the late liberal judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. With their appointment, the Conservatives in the Supreme Court would get a dominant majority of six of the nine seats in the court. The court often has the final say in legal disputes over politically contested issues such as immigration or the right to abortion.
The judges are proposed by the President and appointed for life by the Senate. The Republicans hold 53 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar admitted that Democrats, who are in the Senate minority, cannot prevent Barrett’s appointment. But they have a “secret weapon”: the vote of the Republican senator’s voters. She called on citizens to call the members of the Senate and give their opinion./so/DP/nas
