The defining feature of Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing was her refusal to answer a single question that might actually reveal her opinion, as a judge or a person, on some of the most consequential matters to Americans. In particular, Barrett repeatedly claimed she couldn’t possibly say anything about the Affordable Care Act or abortion, issues that will no doubt come before her in the 40-plus years she’s expected to sit on the court—and probably sooner rather than later.

That’s not because she doesn’t have extremely strong opinions on these matters but because she does—that’s why Republicans nominated her, knowing full well that when a case regarding Obamacare is heard in November, they can reliably expect that she’ll vote to overturn it, and that should a challenge to Roe v. Wade come up, she’ll do the same. Barrett wrote a law review article criticizing the Supreme Court for upholding the ACA’s individual mandate in 2012, in particular going after Chief Justice John Roberts, who looks like a flaming liberal in comparison. In addition, she has praised her mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, for his dissenting opinion in King v. Burwell, which upheld the law’s subsidies as constitutional. As for abortion, Barrett wrote in one court opinion that the procedure is “always immoral”; dissented in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc., arguing to uphold an Indiana law requiring doctors to notify the parents of a minor seeking an abortion; and dissented in the case of Commissioner of the Indiana State Department of Health v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc., arguing in favor of a law requiring that fetal remains be buried or cremated. And, as we heard during her three days before the Senate Judiciary Committee, she signed a letter calling for the end of the “barbaric” Roe v. Wade.

All of which makes one of her nonanswers to a written follow-up question from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse extremely chilling. Specifically, the one in which she says, “As a sitting judge and as a judicial nominee, it would not be appropriate for me to offer an opinion on abstract legal issues or hypotheticals” in response to the question “Under an originalist theory of interpretation, would there be any constitutional problem with a state making abortion a capital crime, thus subjecting women who get abortions to the death penalty?”

Obviously, claiming that she can’t answer hypothetical questions has been Barrett’s schtick throughout this entire process and, in some instances, it might actually be appropriate to say as much. But not when the question is “can a state sentence a woman to death for getting an abortion,” unless of course she thinks there might somehow be a scenario in which the answer is yes!

Anyway, Barrett was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, and today kicked off three days of debate on the Senate floor ahead of a vote scheduled for Monday. Following the vote, Barrett is expected to be confirmed for a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land, barring something crazy happening like “moderate” Republicans thinking maybe women shouldn’t be executed for choosing what to do with their own bodies.

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Apparently Benjamin Netanyahu has also seen the polls putting Joe Biden ahead by double digits

Only the best people, Jared Kushner edition

It would appear that the first son-in-law also only surrounds himself with the best, classiest people and by best and classiest we of course mean an alleged cyber-stalker. Per the New York Times:

Two years ago, the Trump administration offered a seat on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities to Ken Kurson, a close friend of the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. As part of the routine background check for the position, the FBI uncovered a swirl of harassment allegations against Mr. Kurson over his divorce in 2015. He then withdrew from consideration, but the fallout from the nomination did not end there. On Friday, federal prosecutors charged Mr. Kurson with cyber-stalking three people and harassing two others, including a friend whom he blamed for the deterioration of his marriage.

Mr. Kurson’s accusers described his conduct as “diabolical” and “super scary,” according to the criminal complaint.… The FBI has gathered evidence that Mr. Kurson also installed software on someone’s computer to monitor keystrokes, the complaint said. He used aliases to contact that person’s employer to report false allegations of misconduct, according to the complaint.

At this point you’ve likely lost track of how many people in the Trump orbit have been arrested or convicted of crimes, but a conservative estimate puts it at at least nine, including Ken. In an extremely strange statement, Kurson’s lawyer seemed to suggest to the Times that whatever his client has been accused of isn’t the big deal everyone is making it out to be, saying that Kurson is “an honorable man, a loving dad, and a gifted writer. The conduct alleged is hardly worthy of a federal criminal prosecution. Ken will get past it.”

Trump second-term priorities suggest he knows Earth on his watch will soon been uninhabitable

Elsewhere!

Focus Group Slams Trump for No Empathy in Final Presidential Debate (Intelligencer)

Biden Has Surged Ahead in Donors, Including in States That Matter Most (Washington Post)

Pelosi, Mnuchin Trade Blame as Stimulus Negotiations Stall (Bloomberg)

Fox News Is Covering Hunter Biden Claims More Than 2016 WikiLeaks Emails (New York Times)

Hedge Fund Magnate Is Moving His $41 Billion Firm From NY to Florida (New York Times)

Fauci Says Trump Hasn’t Attended COVID Task Force Meeting in “Several Months” (CNBC)

Biden Campaign Creates TrumpCovidPlan.com Website That Opens to a Nonexistent Page (Washington Post)

FTC Reportedly Nearing the End of Its Facebook Antitrust Probe (New York Post)

Jennifer Aniston Urges Followers Not to Vote for Kanye West (New York Post)

Pennsylvania Family Builds “Candypult” for Safe Trick-or-Treating (UPI)

— Progressives Are Going Rogue to Flip Pennsylvania for Biden
— White House Reporters Fume Over Team Trump’s “Reckless” COVID Response
— Why Anti–Trump Attack Ads Might Actually Be Helping Him
— Tax Mess Aside, Can Trump Pay Off His $1 Billion in Debt?
— News Media Begins to Contemplate a Post–Trump White House
— The Kimberly Guilfoyle Sexual Harassment Allegations Get Even Darker
— As Trump Falters, Democrats See an Expanding 2020 Senate Map
— From the Archive: Inside Trump’s Twisted, Epic Battle for Mar-a-Lago
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