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Coronavirus Updates: Chuck Schumer Demands Postponement Of SCOTUS Hearings As Coronavirus Spreads Among Lawmakers

Sydney Pereira

Published Oct 4, 2020

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Two people wear protective face masks as they walk along a commercial street in Gravesend, Brooklyn on September 28th, 2020.

Kathy Willens/AP/Shutterstock

Sydney Pereira

Published Oct 4, 2020

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This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Sunday, October 4th, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here, and up-to-date statistics are here.

New York City is in Phase 4 of reopening now, which includes zoos, botanical gardens, museums, and gyms. A look at preparing for the spread of coronavirus is here, and if you have lingering questions about the virus, here is our regularly updated coronavirus FAQ. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.

Here's the latest:

5:05 p.m.: Congressional Democrats are calling for Senate's hearings on President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nomination to be postponed as the coronavirus outbreak among political leaders continues to spread.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the outbreak should be a "reality check" for his Republican counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"Ignoring the risk, turning a blind-eye to what the experts tell us and failing on transparency will not make the coronavirus go away," Schumer said. "Instead, those actions will only allow the virus to continue its spread. This will keep on happening in and around the Capitol if we continue with business as usual."

McConnell recessed Senate proceedings for two weeks due to the virus's spread among top Republicans—but committees "can and will continue as each committee sees fit," he said in a statement on Saturday. That includes judiciary committee hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination. The judiciary committee in the Senate will convene October 12th.

Meanwhile, three Republican Senators have tested positive for coronavirus. Two of them, Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, sit on the Judiciary Committee. They are currently quarantining for ten days, and expect to attend committee hearings on the 12th.

Last month, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died of pancreatic cancer, sending the Republicans into a frenzy to nominate and now confirm Judge Barrett as votes are already being cast in the 2020 election. McConnell's push to fill Ginsburg's seat during an election is the opposite of his strategy following Justice Antonin Scalia's death in 2016, when McConnell refused to even hold hearings for President Barack Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. At the time, he claimed that because it was an election year, the voters should decide who got to appoint Scalia's replacement. Scalia died in February 2016, kicking off the SCOTUS process nine months before the general election and months ahead of when each party's nominees were chosen during primaries.

Last week, President Donald Trump became sick with COVID-19 and spent the weekend hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington D.C.

"As we continue to learn of additional colleagues testing positive for COVID-19, it is increasingly clear that rushing Amy Coney Barrett’s hearing forward in the midst of a COVID outbreak in the White House and Senate would turn an illegitimate process into a reckless and dangerous one," Schumer added.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar echoed Schumer on Fox News Sunday.

"I don't know why you would ram through this Supreme Court hearing, put people in danger because it would be within that two-week period, while you have shut down the whole Senate," Klobuchar told Fox News's Chris Wallace.

Cuomo To Launch New State Task Force Enforcing Rules In Hotspots

Governor Andrew Cuomo is rolling out a new state task force to ramp up enforcement in hotspot ZIP codes in New York.

"Local businesses that are in violation of the law will be fined and can be closed—just like bars and restaurants," Cuomo said during a Sunday morning press call from Albany. "If there are businesses that are violating the gathering rules, they can be fined, and they will be closed. You know the state is serious because they can look back at what we did with bars and restaurants. They were fined, and they were closed when they were in violation."

This summer, the State Liquor Authority and state police teamed up to enforce bar and restaurant rules to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The task force inspected thousands of establishments and suspended liquor licenses from over 200 restaurants and bars.

The task force will be made up of state government employees, though the governor did not specify which employees or what the enforcement would entail. We've reached out to the Governor's office for more details.

"Local governments have not done an effective job of enforcement in these hot spot ZIP codes," Cuomo said in a statement released after the call. "The State will be doing aggressive enforcement starting tomorrow."

New York is seeing an increase in COVID-19 clusters across the state, mostly in NYC, Rockland County, and Orange County.

Cuomo said local governments should shift from education to enforcement as well.

As schools begin to open during the uptick in coronavirus cases, Cuomo said all schools, both public and private, need to increase testing in the hotspot zones to report to the state.

"We want additional tests right away starting tomorrow in those schools. Report the data on the dashboard and let's find out what's going on," Cuomo said. "The schools in this case will be the canary in the coal mine."

Among hotspot ZIP codes, the positivity rate was an average 4.8% on Saturday, Cuomo announced. Statewide, the positive testing rate was 1.1%, which included the hotspot zones. 20 ZIP codes account for 21% of the cases, though the areas are just 6% of the population, the governor said.

Fourteen people died from coronavirus on Saturday.

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covid-19 updates

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Sydney Pereira

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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