News: “This is taking us 10 steps back”

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

“This is taking us 10 steps back”

Amy Coney Barrett's Senate hearing is underway; Europe is dealing with another Covid-19 surge.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Benjamin Rosenberg.

TOP NEWS

The SCOTUS justice confirmation battle in the Senate

Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court began Monday, despite Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who both sit on the committee, testing positive for Covid-19 earlier this month. [NPR / Claudia Grisales]
The first day of the hearing lasted roughly five hours. The Democrats focused their questions on health care — the Affordable Care Act is thought to be in jeopardy with Barrett on the Court — while Republicans said the Democrats were biased against Barrett because she is Catholic. [ABC News / Benjamin Siegel]
Sen. Kamala Harris of California, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, gave her opening statement remotely but discussed the ACA, saying "that's a big reason why Republicans are rushing this process… to ensure they can strip away the protections of the Affordable Care Act." [FiveThirtyEight / Amelia Thompson-DeVeaux]
Barrett, meanwhile drew heavily on her experience clerking for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, saying they share a similar conservative legal philosophy. She also mentioned that she would be the only justice without a law degree from Harvard or Yale. [CNN / Jeremy Herb]
At just 48, Barrett could be on her way to a decades-long career on the Court, and her confirmation would mean a 6-3 conservative majority. This has prompted some Democrats to consider adding additional justices to the Court should they take the White House and the Senate. [Vox / Ian Millhiser]
The hearings continued Tuesday, and Barrett said she adheres to the principle of stare decisis, which essentially means the Supreme Court will not overturn a previous ruling without good reason. The issue came up in the context of Roe v. Wade, which many fear could be upended. [Washington Post / Amber Phillips]
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey noted the strangeness of the moment, repeating "this is not normal" throughout his opening statement. He said in the likely event that Barrett is confirmed, women will be "denied the ability to make decisions about their own bodies." [Slate / Daniel Politi]
After Republicans took control of the Senate in the 2014 midterm elections, they blocked nearly every judicial appointment President Barack Obama made during his final two years in office. As a result, Trump has had nearly as many judges confirmed in one term as Obama had in two. [Vox / Ian Millhiser]
Republicans appear to have the votes necessary to confirm Barrett, which could happen as soon as Thursday. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the committee chair, acknowledged in his opening statement that the vote would likely fall directly along party lines. [NYT / Nicholas Fandos]

Covid-19 is hitting Europe hard yet again

Europe is in the midst of a second Covid-19 surge. Many governments, after appearing to be out of the woods, are reinstituting partial lockdowns, closing bars and restaurants or limiting their hours. As one Berlin bar owner said, "this is taking us 10 steps back." [CNN / Laura Smith-Spark and Nadine Schmidt]
The Czech Republic may have the worst outbreak in Europe right now. In July, the capital city of Prague held a "Farewell Covid" party, with thousands of people dining at a 500 yard-long table to celebrate what they thought was the end of the pandemic. [NBC News / Yuliya Talmazan]
In Germany, Europe's largest economy, confirmed Covid-19 cases are increasing at the fastest rate since April; that's true of Italy, too. France is recording its highest single-day case increases of the entire pandemic, though death rates are not as high as they were in parts of the spring. [ABC News / Guy Davies]
Berlin, which is seeing more than 400 daily new cases, mandated bars and restaurants to close at 11 pm local time through the end of October. "This is not the time to party," Mayor Michael Muller said Saturday. "We can and we want to prevent another more severe confinement." [Al Jazeera]
The United Kingdom, meanwhile, instituted a three-level lockdown plan. Liverpool was placed in the highest-risk category, and its pubs and gyms were shut down. Even areas in the lowest-risk category will have to close bars and restaurants at 10 pm. [AP / Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui]
Why are cases rising again? Lax adherence to social distancing has been a problem across Europe, but in the UK, Boris Johnson's government has especially struggled to act quickly. [Vox / Joanne Silberner]

MISCELLANEOUS

The California Republican Party admitted placing fake ballot drop-off boxes, falsely marking them "official," in three counties in an attempt to deceive voters.

[Slate / Mark Joseph Stern]

Facebook has banned "any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust" on its site for the first time. CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously said that such posts should not automatically be removed, sparking significant public backlash. [BBC News]
Nigeria has disbanded a police unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or Sars, after a large number of allegations that it was engaged in police brutality. [The Guardian / Emmanuel Akinwotu]
Ahead of Columbus Day/Indigenous People's Day, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador demanded an apology from the Catholic Church for its atrocities against indigenous communities during and after the colonial period. [NBC News / Cynthia Silva]

VERBATIM

"This is probably not about persuading each other unless something really dramatic happens. All the Republicans will vote yes, all the Democrats will vote no."

[Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearing]