Day 3: Confirmation Hearings for Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett

The Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett heated up Wednesday afternoon with more tense exchanges over the Affordable Care Act (ACA), specifically with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, appearing to suggest that Barrett was publicly lobbying for a judicial job from Trump by writing a law review article that expressed suspicion of a past ACA ruling. 

Klobuchar, D-Minn., picked up on a point hammered by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Tuesday that Barrett published a 2017 law review article in which she criticized the reasoning of the majority opinion in NFIB v. Sebelius, the original Supreme Court ruling that upheld the ACA's constitutionality by reading the fine associated with the individual mandate to purchase health insurance as a tax. Klobuchar implied the article was some sort of signal to Trump that he should select her for a judgeship. 

"The position of the Trump administration is to throw the whole thing out," Klobuchar said of the administration's stance in the California v. Texas case set to be argued before the Supreme Court on Nov. 10. The was referencing talk of the "severability doctrine" that went on earlier in the hearing, in which Barrett made clear she would consider leaving most of the ACA in place if the Supreme Court rules the individual mandate unconstitutional. 

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