NOTE: Before answering the questions, see “Background” and “Resources” below.

1. When will the Senate Judiciary Committee conduct nomination hearings for Amy Coney Barrett?

2. How did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell respond to Democrats calls to postpone hearings due to two senators’ Covid-19 diagnosis?

3. What qualifications does Barrett have?

4. What will be a first if Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed?

5. What is Judge Barrett’s judicial philosophy? What did she say about it during the 2017 confirmation hearing to the federal appeals court?

6. Senate Republicans, who hold a narrow majority, have the votes to confirm Judge Barrett. Many GOP lawmakers say is crucial to confirm a 9th justice (as a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg) in the case of delayed or disputed election results. Ask a parent: how necessary do you think this is? Please explain your answer.

7. Nominees customarily meet with individual senators prior to Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings. Democrats say Barrett’s nomination is illegitimate and no justice should be nominated before January after the election. Four Democrats have refused to meet with Barrett. Senate Minority Leader Democrat Chuck Schumer stated that he would not meet with Trump's nominee ahead the confirmation hearings. Sen. Schumer tweeted,

"I am not going to meet with Judge Barrett. Why would I meet with a nominee of such an illegitimate process and one who is determined to get rid of the Affordable Care Act?"

What do you think: should the opposing party refuse to meet with a president’s nominee? Explain your answer.

CHALLENGE: Watch the hearings next week at c-span.org. In a commentary at USA Today, Mary Vought writes:

During the 2017 confirmation hearings for her current appointment to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Barrett faced harsh questioning from Judiciary Committee Democrats about her Catholic faith and beliefs.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) asked the nominee, “Do you consider yourself an orthodox Catholic?”

California's Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s ranking Democrat, infamously said that “so many of us on this side have this very uncomfortable feeling” arising from Barrett’s faith, because “the dogma lives loudly within you.”

Article VI, Section 3 states that lawmakers and federal employees “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

Democrats may disagree with Judge Barrett’s political views or even her judicial philosophy; they have every right to do so. But when they took their oath to uphold the Constitution, lawmakers, by definition, swore to disregard nominees’ religious beliefs. During the Barrett hearings, they should uphold their vow to the Constitution and to the American people.

During questioning, do you think Democratic senators unfairly brought Judge Barrett’s Catholic faith into questioning, or did they not mention it?