Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court confirmation hearing day 3: Highlights and analysis

The hourslong hearings for Barrett wrapped up shortly before 6 p.m. ET after she was again grilled by lawmakers over policies and her judicial philosophy. It is the end of the hearings part of the confirmation process.

The lawmakers then moved to a closed-door meeting to go over her FBI background check, which is standard for appointees. 

Over the past several days, Barrett was questioned on a variety of legal topics and pressed by Democrats, who excoriated their GOP colleagues for rushing Trump’s nomination in an election year. Republicans also criticized Democrats for their questions.

Graham, the committee’s chairman, however, ended the hearing on a light note. 

"It is over. The hearing part is over. You can have two glasses of wine tonight if you'd like,” he told Barrett. 

Graham praised Barrett as a highly-qualified jurist, and he thanked the Democrats for asking “challenging and probing” questions, but said “elections have consequences,” noting that she is a Republican nominee. 

Following the hearing, Senate Democrats also plan to hold a press conference later Wednesday to highlight what’s at stake for the American people with this nomination.

The Senate will reconvene Thursday at 9 a.m. 

Harris and Barrett had another testy exchange involving climate change. 

It began with Harris asking Barrett if she believed the coronavirus is infectious. "Yes, I do accept that Covid-19 is contagious. It is an obvious fact. Yes," Barrett answered.

Harris then asked if she believed smoking causes cancer. Barrett said "I'm not sure where you're going with this,"  but answered, "Yes."

Harris then asked if she believed "that climate change is happening and threatening the air we breathe and the water we drink."

Barrett demurred, saying the other questions had been "completely uncontroversial" and Harris was trying to solicit an opinion on "a very contentious matter of public debate. And I will not do that. I will not express a view on a matter of public policy, especially one that is politically controversial because that is inconsistent with the judicial rule as I have explained."

Harris concluded the line of questioning by saying,  "Thank you, Judge Barrett. You've made your point clear. You believe it's a debatable point."  

Sen. Kamala Harris began her questioning by focusing on voting rights and paying tribute to the late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis before getting into a testy exchange with Barrett.

The vice presidential nominee and former prosecutor asked the judge whether she agreed with Chief Justice John Roberts that "voting discrimination still exists and no one doubts that."

"I'm not going to make a comment," Barrett told the Democratic vice presidential nominee, who noted that 23 states "have passed restrictive voting laws" since the Voting Rights Act was gutted in in 2013.  

"These are very charged issues" that are likely to come before the high court, Barrett told Harris. The judge did offer that, "Racial discrimination still exists in the United States."

During questioning from Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Barrett refused to say whether she thought separating children from their parents at the border is "wrong."

Saying he considered the answer "obvious," Booker asked, "Do you think it is wrong to separate children from their parents" in order to deter "immigrants from coming to the United States?" 

Barrett told him, "That has been a matter of policy debate" and "hot political debate in which I cannot express a view or be drawn into as a judge."

Booker kept pressing, asking, "As a human being, do you believe that is wrong?"

Barrett again declined to answer, saying she would not comment on the morality of the position and "cannot be drawn into a debate about the administration's immigration policy."

After dodging questions about the upcoming election earlier in the hearing, Barrett said the Supreme Court's role should only to be ensure a "fair" election.

Asked by Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., if the Supreme Court would elect the next president, Barrett said its role would be to make sure the results are protected. 

"While it's impossible to predict what aspect [of the election] would be challenged," Barrett said, election laws "are designed to protect the right to vote."

She was then asked by Tillis if she agreed that every registered voter in the country should vote on Nov. 11, which is eight days after the Nov. 3, Election Day. "Of course," she answered.

Barrett sidestepped a question from Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., on her views on pandemic restrictions against protests as opposed to religious worship.

"Those aren't things I'd be able to comment on," she told him. 

Asked how she'd evaluate such cases, Barrett said, "The general position is the government has a compelling interest in responding to” a public health crisis, but "First Amendment concerns would “come into play as well.”

After Graham announced a break while they worked on the audio problems, the mics briefly flickered on at a little after 3 p.m. ET, but still didn't work properly. 

Graham then gaveled the hearing back in at 3:14 p.m. ET after waiting for Barrett to return while the mic issues were being fixed; he had been waiting for the nominee to come back to her seat for quite some time.

“Can someone go find Judge Barrett? Let’s go while we can go,” Graham said.

The chairman jokingly blamed the mic problem on “the curse of the Astros” — a reference to a lighthearted exchange earlier in the day among Sens. Sasse, Cornyn and Cruz.

Sen. Tillis, whose turn had only just come up when the mics went out, is returning to his questions now.