President Trump's pick for the Supreme Court has been making her case.

If she's approved Amy Coney Barrett will replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September.

Well, in the last hour or so, Amy Coney Barrett has addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Here's some of what she said.

I chose to accept the nomination because I believe deeply in the rule of law and the place of the Supreme Court in our nation.

I believe Americans of all backgrounds deserve an independent Supreme Court that interprets our Constitution and laws as they're written.

And I believe I can serve my country by playing that role.

Judge Parrots nomination has already been controversial for a variety of reasons.

The first is the politics of it all.

Bear in mind.

In 2016 Republicans blocked a vote on President Obama's nominee because it was an election year.

But this year, also in election year, they decided to go ahead, despite this process being far closer to Election Day.

Here's how the Democratic Senator Dick Durbin described what the Republicans are doing is a shameless, self serving, venal reversal.

Why are Senate Republicans so afraid to give the American people a voice about the future of the Supreme Court.

First, they must doubt that Donald Trump will be re elected.

Second, they wanted 63 Supreme Court to carry out a Republican agenda.

That's really not very popular with the American people.

Well, the Republican chair off the Judiciary Committee, Lindsey Graham, defended the process.

The bottom line is Justice Ginsburg.

When asked about this several years ago, he said that the president serves four years, not three.

There's nothing unconstitutional about this process.

This is a vacancy that's occurred through a tragic loss of a great woman, and we're gonna fill that vacancy with another great woman.

The bottom line here is that the Senate is doing its duty constitutionally.

But of course, the Senate didn't go through that process in 2016 when it could have chosen to do so.

Now the Republican senators on this committee, two of them have recently tested positive for Curve in 19 on the virus has caused a number of questions about the process.

Here's Joe Biden's running mate, Senator Kamala Harris.

The decision toe hold this hearing now is reckless and places, facilities, workers, janitorial staff and congressional aides and Capitol Police at risk.

Not to mention that while tens of millions of Americans are struggling to pay their bills, the Senate should be prioritizing coronavirus relief and providing financial support to those families.

The next reason why Judge Barrett's nomination is sensitive is because of the delicate balance of the court.

Before Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, five justices had been appointed by Republican presidents, four by Democratic ones.

If Amy Coney Barrett is successful, he would give the court a strong conservative majority of 6 to 3 social conservatives, a keen on her because of her record on issues such as abortion, gay marriage, gun rights and immigration.

Both sides of the argument, though, agree that the stakes are very high, and we saw more evidence of that outside the hearings today.

These people are, as you could see against this particular nomination.

More broadly, Democrats are warning that her appointment would undermine the future of health insurance for millions of low income Americans.

But there was a counter protests as well.

Republicans see this is a chance to replace a liberal justice with the conservative and to shape the nature of the court for years to come well as well as being conservative.

Miss Barrett is also known for being was called on originalist.

This means she believes judges should attempt to interpret the words of the US Constitution as its authors intended when they wrote it, rather than trying to put a modern slant on them.

Here she is on this issue.

Courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life.

The policy decisions and value judgements of government must be made by the political branches elected by an accountable to the people.

The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try.

One law that may lie in the balance is the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Hearings on the law of doing the court in November so not long after the presidential election.

Here's the Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Health care coverage for millions of Americans is at stake with this nomination, So over the course of these hearings, my colleagues and I will focus on that subject.

We will examine the consequences if and that's a big if Republicans succeed in rushing this nomination through the Senate before the next president takes office.

Now these hearings will run for most of this week.

Miss Barrett will be questioned about a personal and legal beliefs by the 22 members off the Judiciary Committee.

The committee will then deliberate.

It's expected to vote by October, the 22nd at the latest.

If the vote is in Ms Faris favor, Republicans hope to hold a full Senate vote on October the 23rd or that could be pushed into the following week.

Either way, this seems very likely to go the way of the Republicans because they hold a slim majority in the Senate on 51 votes.

Do look secure.

While watching that statement was the BBC's Laura Trevelyan in Washington, it was carefully calibrated.

Laura, How did you assess what Miss Barrett had to say?

Yes, carefully calibrated but the key phrase there that she believes Americans of all backgrounds deserve a Supreme Court that's independent on interpret our Constitution and laws as they were written now that as you were saying, there is clearly a pitch that she's on originalist.

She's someone who believes in the constitution as it was written.

That is a signal to conservatives that she is someone who will take issue with um, or expansive interpretation of the Constitution one, for example, that protects a broader of array of Americans rights.

Eso when it comes to abortion rights, when it comes to on expansive role of the state at conservatives hope that she will be someone who will vote for um or restrictive agenda on.

On November the 10th, the Affordable Care Act comes in front of the Supreme Court.

She has criticized Justice John Roberts for his vote in upholding Obamacare a few years back on.

Clearly, conservative Republicans are hoping that she will be part of a vote to strike down that act, and this was her opening statement.

We then move on to questions later in the week.

I was mentioning earlier that the briefing is that she'll be quizzed about her personal and legal beliefs.

Just help us understand a little bit more about what that means.

Well, I think Democrats will probably steer clear of questioning her about her faith.

She is a Catholic.

She's a member of a charismatic group at Joe Biden.

The Democratic presidential nominee warned Democratic senators not to go down that route and Republicans have been flagging up all day that it's not fair to go after somebody based on their faith and to assume that they're going to rule in a particular way because of that.

So I would expect Mawr that Democrats will ask her questions about the fact that she doesn't like the way Justice Roberts, the chief justice, voted when he upheld Obamacare.

And they'll also ask her about the fact that she's on the record as saying that she doesn't like Roe versus Wade, that landmark federal law that upheld the right to an abortion at all.

The senators get 30 minutes each to question her, and you can see the Democrats are trying to hammer this idea that a vote for her will be the end of the Affordable Care Act.