Newsletter: Senators Spar On First Day Of Barrett Hearings

Amy Coney Barrett
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is sworn in during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool
Amy Coney Barrett
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is sworn in during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool

Newsletter: Senators Spar On First Day Of Barrett Hearings

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

Good afternoon! It’s Monday, and my dog, Princess Leia, is still recovering from some minor surgery she had last week. Here’s what you need to know today. (PS: You can have this delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.)

1. Health care and faith take center stage at Amy Coney Barrett hearing

The Senate Judiciary Committee today began its confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, and Republicans and Democrats used their opening statements to offer competing portrayals of the judge.

One after another, Democratic senators focused on the implications of Barrett’s confirmation on the fate of the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court next month is expected to hear arguments on whether the law is unconstitutional because Congress eliminated penalties for Americans who do not have health insurance.

Republicans, however, accused Democrats of attacking Barrett’s Catholic faith, even though no Democrat mentioned it. Republican senators also defended their decision to move forward with Barrett’s confirmation during an election year, saying the situation is different than in 2016, when GOP senators blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland. [NPR]

WBEZ will offer special coverage of this week’s confirmation hearings from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. CT on 91.5 FM. Senators are expected to begin questioning Barrett at tomorrow’s hearing.

The hearings come as a slight majority of registered voters, 52%, say the winner of the presidential election should fill the Supreme Court vacancy, while 44% say the Senate should move forward with Barrett’s nomination, according to a poll from The Washington Post and ABC News. [Washington Post]

Barrett is a believer in “originalism,” a theory that judges should interpret the Constitution based on what the authors originally meant at the time it was ratified. [Vox]

2. Trump campaign looks for a reset as GOP worries about a Biden landslide

With just three weeks left until Election Day, Republican strategists are hoping President Donald Trump can turn around his campaign after suffering a series of self-inflicted setbacks. These strategists are also worried the GOP’s majority in the Senate could be in jeopardy.

“He’s in trouble, there’s no question. By every traditional measuring stick, this looks like a Biden landslide,” said Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush. “It’s hard to predict what will happen in Congress, but anytime there is a large-scale victory, it has the potential to create tides to sweep people out.” [AP]

Trump is behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden by 12 points in a national poll recently released by The Washington Post and ABC News. But that’s a national poll, and the president isn’t trailing as badly in polls taken in some battleground states. [New York Times]

Meanwhile, Biden continues to dodge questions about whether he would add more seats to the Supreme Court. [NPR]

3. Lightfoot wanted to tackle Chicago’s violence in a new way, but the city still relies mostly on police officers

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has frequently said Chicago needs to reimagine how it tackles violence and has touted anti-violence groups as a crucial partner. But an analysis from the Chicago Tribune shows that anti-violence groups have received only modest city funding, and City Hall still relies mostly on police officers when violence flares up.

As the Trib reports: “The city’s spending for these alternate approaches to violence is less than 1% of the city’s share of the Police Department budget this year — which is about $1.7 billion. In June alone, the city spent more than four times as much on police overtime.” [Chicago Tribune]

Those budget concerns come as Lightfoot must find a way to close a $1.2 billion shortfall in next year’s budget.

The head of the Civic Federation, a fiscal watchdog, is urging Lightfoot to avoid raising property taxes by making a number of politically unpopular decisions, such as making cuts to the Fire Department and eliminating vacant positions in the Police Department. [Chicago Sun-Times]

4. Illinois nears 9,000 COVID-19 deaths

The number of new coronavirus cases continues to rise in Illinois. State officials today announced 2,742 new cases and 13 additional deaths. So far, the state has reported a total of 321,892 known cases and 8,997 fatalities.

Illinois is seeing a weekly average of 2,538 cases per day, an increase of 28% from the average two weeks ago, according to The New York Times. The state’s positivity rate has also risen to 4.3%. [WBEZ]

In Chicago, the number of new cases is also increasing. The city is seeing a weekly average of 347 cases per day, up 7% from the previous week’s average. [COVID Dashboard]

5. A look at Pritzker’s proposed graduated income tax

One of the many decisions before Illinois voters this election is a constitutional amendment to adopt a graduated income tax. The state currently has a flat income tax, meaning that everyone gets taxed at the same rate regardless of how much money they earn.

Proponents of the graduated income tax, such as Gov. JB Pritzker, say it will shift the tax burden to the wealthy and away from low-income residents. Critics, however, say the graduated income tax will hurt businesses and make it easier for state lawmakers to raise taxes on high earners, whereas a flat tax makes it harder to raise taxes because it affects more people.

The Chicago Tribune has this easy-to-read guide on the graduated income tax and what is at stake as Illinois faces enormous budget shortfalls due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [Chicago Tribune]

If voters approve the graduated income tax, what does that mean for Chicago, which faces a $1.2 billion deficit in next year’s budget? Not much, according to an analysis from the Civic Federation, a fiscal watchdog. That analysis estimated the city would only see about $100 million in new revenue. [Block Club Chicago]

Here’s what else is happening

  • A majority of Chicago’s public schools are not meeting benchmarks in bilingual education, even as nearly 20% of the student population is learning English. [WBEZ]
  • Facing pressure from critics, Facebook will ban all content that “denies or distorts the Holocaust.” [NPR]
  • The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to two U.S. Stanford University professors. [NPR]
  • Tomorrow night sounds like a good time to look up at the sky. [NPR]

Oh, and one more thing …

An Italian teenager is one step closer to becoming the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint.

Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 at the age of 15, was recently beatified, which is the last stage before naming a deceased person a saint.

Acutis, who is already dubbed the “patron saint of the internet,” created a website that cataloged miracles and helped run websites for Catholic organizations. Pope Francis set in motion Acutis’ potential sainthood after he approved a miracle attributed to Acutis: that he cured a 7-year-old Brazilian boy suffering from a rare pancreatic disease.

The Vatican would have to identify a second miracle before Acutis is named a saint, but Pope Francis has waived this requirement on rare occasions. [BBC]

Tell me something good …

Halloween is almost here, and I’d like to know: What are your favorite scary movies, TV shows or books?

Me? I love Suspiria, which is about a dance academy in Germany that’s secretly run by witches. The original movie was released in 1977, and then a remake came out in 2018. Both are great and sufficiently weird.

Which are your favorite scary movies, shows or books? Feel free to email at therundown@wbez.org or tweet to @whuntah.

Have a nice night! If you like what you just read, you can subscribe to the newsletter here and have it delivered to your inbox.