Judge Amy Coney Barrett can expect to be asked whether she will recuse herself from any rulings regarding the 2020 presidential election if confirmed to the high court.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told NBC’s Meet the Press that he would be willing to meet with Barrett ahead of the committee hearings for her confirmation that will start next month.
“I think you know my spirit, which is to sit down and meet with people and talk to them. And I’m going to make it very clear, one of the things I want to ask her is will she recuse herself … in terms of any election issues that come before us, because if she does not recuse herself, I fear that the court will be further delegitimized,” Booker said on Sunday.
“In other words, President Trump has said, ‘I will not accept the result of the election unless I win. I’m going to push it to the Supreme Court, and oh, by the way, during the election I’m going to put somebody on the court, as well.’ So I hope to have a conversation with her, and I’m blessed to be on the Judiciary Committee, and I’ll have that, as well. And hopefully, I’ll have a good, informed dialogue back and forth,” he added.
Booker noted that he hopes his Republican colleagues in the Senate will choose not to confirm a justice before the election, something that remains unlikely as it appears the GOP majority appear to have enough votes to confirm Trump’s nominee.
“My larger hope is, is that the Republican Party realizes they’re undermining their legitimacy, the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, and that they stop what they’re doing and wait until the American public has spoken in this election,” he said.
