Two Dueling Realities Collide on Day One of Amy Coney Barrett Hearing

At first, the opening confirmation hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court not only sounded like the senators were in different hearing rooms—some were, in fact, due to COVID-19 concerns—but like they occupied different political universes altogether.In their opening remarks on Monday, each Democratic senator on the Senate Judiciary Committee cast the stakes of Barrett’s confirmation as nothing less than the fate of millions of Americans who could lose acc