Barrett Declines to Say She'll Sit out If Election Is Thrown to the Court

C M Y K Yxxx,2020-10-14,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

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Sticking to Playbook Insists She Won’t Be of Deflection ‘Pawn’ of Trump

By ADAM LIPTAK By NICHOLAS FANDOS WASHINGTON — In 1995, Judge Amy Coney Barrett flatly Justice Elena Kagan, then a refused on Tuesday to pledge that young law professor, wrote a law she would recuse herself if a dis- review article calling Supreme pute over the Nov. 3 election came Court confirmation hearings “a before the Supreme Court, insist- vapid and hollow ing that despite her nomination by NEWS charade.” President Trump, she would not ANALYSIS “The safest and “allow myself to be used as a pawn surest route to the to decide this election for the prize,” she wrote, “lay in alter- American people.” nating platitudinous statement During a nearly 12-hour ques- and judicious silence.” tion-and-answer session, Judge Judge Amy Coney Barrett Barrett evaded Democratic sena- expertly followed that playbook tors’ attempts to pin down her at her confirmation hearings on views on the Affordable Care Act, Tuesday, in her first day of an- abortion rights, same-sex mar- swering questions from the Sen- riage and a possible election-relat- ate Judiciary Committee. Speak- ed case. She played down her his- ing without notes, she gave sure- tory of taking conservative ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES footed accounts of Supreme stances in legal writings and per- Judge Amy Coney Barrett was questioned for more than nine hours on the second day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Court precedents and then, al- sonal statements, arguing that most without exception, declined she might view issues differently to say whether the decisions as a sitting justice. were correct. “I have not made any commit- Judge Barrett was patient, ments or deals or anything like $52,112 Air Ambulance Ride: Supreme Court Permits Freeze calm, a little stern and some- that,” she told the Senate Judicia- times surprisingly terse when ry Committee on her second day Of Census, Giving Trump a Win she spoke about the law, easily of confirmation hearings. “I’m not Covid Patients’ Surprise Bills parrying most questions from here on a mission to destroy the the Democratic senators who Affordable Care Act. I’m just here By SARAH KLIFF Anxiety Over Charges By ADAM LIPTAK In Dissent, Sotomayor tried to put her on the spot. to apply the law and adhere to the An intubated coronavirus pa- and MICHAEL WINES She would not say how she rule of law.” tient was declining rapidly when Can Interfere With WASHINGTON — The Su- Warns of ‘Intolerable’ would rule in potential cases on After days of hammering Judge doctors decided to airlift her to a preme Court on Tuesday allowed abortion, the election and same- Barrett over the health care law, hospital with better critical care Recovery the Trump administration to halt Effects on Count sex marriage — or a pending one Democrats dismissed her assur- resources. the 2020 census count ahead of on the Affordable Care Act. ances as essentially meaningless. “It’s life or death,” the family of schedule, effectively shutting Judge Barrett’s stance was in Mr. Trump did not need to secure the 60-year-old woman recalled down what has been the most con- line with the approach of nomi- any specific promises from Judge being told when it happened in and it was backed by the White tentious and litigated census in down some parts of its count de- nees since Judge Robert H. Barrett, they argued. The presi- April. “We have to transfer her House. It fell apart at the 11th hour memory and setting the stage for spite a court order to continue it. Bork’s answers at his 1987 confir- dent selected her precisely be- now.” after private-equity firms, which a bitter fight over how to use its The census has been buffeted mation hearings helped doom his cause her honestly held legal The patient was flown by heli- own many of the medical numbers for the apportionment of both by the coronavirus pandemic nomination. views would achieve the end he copter from one Philadelphia hos- providers that deliver surprise the next Congress. and the involvement of the Trump Nominated by President Ron- was after. pital to another 20 miles away. She bills, poured millions into adver- The brief unsigned order for- administration in what has tradi- ald Reagan, a Republican, Judge “I am then left with looking at spent six weeks at the new hospi- tisements opposing the plan. mally only pauses the population tionally been a rigorously nonpar- Bork gave extended answers to the tracks of your record and tal and survived. When she came Committee chairs squabbled over count while the administration tisan, data-driven exercise. Its the senators’ questions, in tones where it leads the American peo- home, a letter arrived: The air am- jurisdictional issues and post- and a host of groups advocating a early end could mean that White that struck some as candid and ple,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, bulance company said she owed poned the issue. Then the pan- more accurate census battle in a House officials, rather than Cen- thoughtful and others as prickly Democrat of Minnesota, “and I $52,112 for the trip. demic struck. federal appeals court over sus Bureau experts, may use the and arrogant. Democrats said his think it leads us to a place that’s Last year, Congress abandoned The Pennsylvania patient had whether the count could be population numbers to determine legal views, particularly his going to have severe repercus- its attempt to prevent surprise no way of knowing that her heli- stopped early. representation in the House of skepticism about the constitu- sions for them.” bills like this one, and coronavirus copter, which transported her be- As a practical matter, however, Representatives and in state and tional right to privacy, were Judge Barrett’s refusal to dis- patients are now paying the price. tween two in-network hospitals, it almost certainly ensures an local governments. extreme and signaled hostility to cuss specific cases or commit to Bills submitted to The New York did not have a contract with her early end because the census — President Trump has insisted abortion rights. recusing from particular matters Times show that patients often health insurance plan. Nor could one of the largest government ac- those numbers should not include The Senate, which was con- was in line with a decades-old face surprise charges from out-of- she have known that the air ambu- tivities, involving hundreds of undocumented immigrants living trolled by Democrats, defeated playbook used by Supreme Court network doctors, ambulances and lance service, owned by a private- thousands of workers — cannot be in the United States. That conflicts the nomination by a 58-to-42 nominees to avoid giving substan- medical laboratories they did not equity firm, faces multiple law- easily restarted and little time re- with the mandate of the Constitu- vote. That was the largest mar- tive answers during confirmation pick or even realize were involved suits over its billing tactics. mains before its current deadline tion that the census count all resi- gin by which it had ever rejected hearings. But her attempts to de- in their care. Her health plan, Independence at the end of this month. In fact, dents of the country and would al- a Supreme Court nomination, flect such questions were more The plan to ban these kinds of Blue Cross, initially said it would some census workers say, the bu- most certainly give more repre- and it was the last time the Sen- conspicuous than usual, given bills was popular and bipartisan, Continued on Page A7 reau had already begun shutting Continued on Page A21 Continued on Page A20 Continued on Page A18

Peace Called ‘Impossible’ for Longtime Neighbors in the Caucasus As a Howard Student, Harris

By ANTON TROIANOVSKI Found Her Political Compass SHGHARJIK, Armenia — The concrete memorial to 30 Azerbai- By ASTEAD W. HERNDON jani soldiers — pockmarked, WASHINGTON — Lita Rosario stained and cracked — pokes out remembers when she first noticed of the craggy mountainside next the girl named Kamala. to the crumbling remnants of two Ms. Rosario, a senior at Howard junked cars. University in 1982, was the only They died fighting for the Soviet woman on the school’s debate Union in World War II, but the team. Kamala Harris, a freshman, time has come, the current head of was earning a reputation at the the village says, for the soldiers’ Punch Out, a gathering place monument to go. where students would argue the “We also have our heroes now,” topics of the time — civil rights, said the village head, Shahen apartheid in South Africa, and the Babayants, who is Armenian. school’s complicated relationship Armenians and Azerbaijanis with President Ronald Reagan. lived side by side in the Soviet Ms. Harris had substance, but days, until conflict over the dis- Ms. Rosario was impressed by her HOWARD UNIVERSITY puted mountain territory called style. A confidence, an intensity, a Kamala Harris as a senior at Nagorno-Karabakh exploded in level of preparation that was rare Howard University in 1986. the late 1980s into riots, expul- for new students. sions and a yearslong war. The vi- “She was so spirited and cogent with the Black Republicans on the olence left personal wounds fes- in her arguments,” Ms. Rosario debate team but made no secret tering for decades, as stubborn as said. “I remember her enthusi- SERGEY PONOMAREV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES that she thought some tactics by the tan and gray stone ruins of asm. And I mostly remember that In Shgharjik, Armenia, where a onetime tolerance for Azerbaijani neighbors has gone sour. activists on the left were going too Azerbaijani villages still scattered she was never intimidated.” far. She extolled the values of ra- in the Armenian countryside. As a student at Howard, called In the last two weeks, those un- and an unknown number of Azer- The new war over Nagorno-Ka- gion that separates Europe from “The Mecca” by those who know cial representation, joining a gen- healed scars have erupted into a baijanis. A cease-fire brokered in rabakh, in which Azerbaijan in- Asia, between the Black Sea and its legacy, Ms. Harris settled into eration of Black students who de- modern-day conflagration of Moscow over the weekend has sists it is ready to fight to recap- the Caspian Sea. the pragmatic politics that have cided to step into the institutions trench warfare, drone strikes and failed to hold, and President Ilham ture the swath of land Armenia The conflict has the potential to defined her career. She partici- — in government and the corpo- artillery bombardments. More Aliyev of Azerbaijan has threat- conquered in the 1990s, is emerg- spiral into an even bigger crisis pated in protests, but was a step rate world — that were unavail- than 500 Armenian soldiers have ened a further escalation of his of- ing as this century’s deadliest con- with unforeseeable conse- removed from the more extreme able to their parents. died, along with scores of civilians fensive. flict in the southern Caucasus re- Continued on Page A11 voices on campus. She sparred Continued on Page A13

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