4 interesting moments from final day of Barrett's confirmation hearings

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, October 15, 2020

Dianne Feinstein resurrects conversation about Barrett’s religion on hot mic

A hot mic caught the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., making comments suggesting that Barrett’s religion ensures that she would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

While Barrett never answered directly whether or not she would vote to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, comments made by Feinstein on a hot mic during a recess at Thursday’s confirmation hearings illustrated that the senior California senator believes that the nominee’s Catholic faith will prevent her from ruling objectively on cases related to abortion. Faithwire’s Tre Goins-Phillips shared the hot mic moment on Twitter.

????? Sen. Feinstein hot mic talking about Judge Amy Coney Barrett: “She’s been pro-life for a long time. So I suspect with her, it is deeply personal and comes with her religion.” pic.twitter.com/5dUBhHLQsn

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— Tré Goins-Phillips (@tregp) October 15, 2020

“She’s been pro-life for a long time,” Feinstein said. “So I suspect with her it is deeply personal and comes with her religion.”

This was not the first time that Feinstein has caused controversy with remarks about Barrett’s Catholic faith. When Barrett appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017 as a nominee to serve on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Feinstein told Barrett that “when you read your speeches, the conclusion that one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for years in this country.”

Responding to another question about her faith from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., at that hearing, Barrett explained that although she was “a faithful Catholic,” “my own personal church affiliation or my religious belief would not bear on the discharge of my duties as a judge.”