WASHINGTON — Justice Amy Coney Barrett is expected to hear arguments for the first time Monday as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The two cases Barrett will hear Monday are relatively low-profile: a dispute involving the Freedom of Information Act and another involving disability benefits for railroad employees. On Tuesday, however, as the country finishes voting, the court’s cases include one about sentencing young people to life without parole. And on Wednesday, the day after Election Day, the court hears a case that involves a clash of LGBTQ rights and religious freedoms in a major swing state, Pennsylvania.
Next week brings a case that could threaten the Affordable Care Act, one that was front and center during Barrett’s confirmation hearings last month. Democrats claimed that the Obama-era health law, known as “Obamacare,” would be in jeopardy if Barrett joined the court. President Donald Trump has urged the court to overturn the law.
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Trump nominated Barrett to the nation’s highest court 35 days before the 2020 presidential election. Democrats opposed her nomination, pointing to the precedent Republicans set when they refused to hold hearings for then-President Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland, months before the 2016 election.
In a rare weekend session, the Senate confirmed Barrett’s nomination last week in a 52-48 vote. The vote marked the first time in 151 years that a justice was confirmed without a single vote from the minority party, according to The New York Times.
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Barrett is the 115th justice confirmed to the high court in its 231-year history, the youngest justice on the court and the fifth woman to sit on its bench.
In May, the court began hearing oral arguments by phone as a precaution prompted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Justices are expected to continue hearing arguments by phone through at least December.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.