By LIBBY CATHEY, ABC News(WASHINGTON) — The high-stakes confirmation hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, gets underway Monday as Senate Republicans push for a final vote before Election Day despite Democratic calls to let voters decide who should pick a new justice.The four days of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings will be unprecedented, with some members participating virtually and in-person. Barrett will appear at the witness table to face questions. The hearing begins at 9 a.m. and will be live streamed on ABC News Live.Trump nominated Barrett to fill the seat left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a Rose Garden ceremony that came just before several who attended tested positive for COVID-19.The president has called it “very important” to get his nominee confirmed quickly in order to have nine justices in place to decide any election-related disputes he expects will come before the court, suggesting Barrett could vote to help him win.Some Democrats have called on Barrett to recuse herself from any election-related cases.With the Supreme Court slated to hear oral arguments one week after the election to determine the fate of the Affordable Care Act, health care will likely take center stage at the blockbuster hearing.Barrett, 48, a devout Roman Catholic, was a law clerk to conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. She considers him her mentor and follows his originalist interpretation of the Constitution. She practiced law at a Washington firm for two years before returning to her alma mater, Notre Dame Law School, to teach. She was nominated by Trump to the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May 2017 and confirmed by the Senate that October in a 55-43 vote.Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
