USA TODAY International Edition
Barrett defends judicial integrity
Nominee to high court stresses her independence
WASHINGTON – Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett fought back Tuesday against caricatures that she is a committed advocate for conservative causes chosen by President Donald Trump to do his bidding on issues ranging from abortion to the Affordable Care Act.
In a marathon session before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barrett was put on the defensive by Democrats charging that she was picked because of her views on abortion, gun rights, same- sex marriage and the health care law headed to the high court for the third time next month.
“That is their stated objective and plan. Why not take them at their word?” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, DR. I., said in reference to Republicans and special- interest groups backing Barrett’s nomination.
Barrett strived to show her independence from the president and conservative forces that hope for a speedy confirmation, wedged tightly between Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and the election.
“I certainly hope that all members of the committee have more confidence in my integrity than to think
that I would allow myself to be used as a pawn to decide the election for the American people,” Barrett said.
But several Democrats implied just that. They urged Barrett to pledge that if confirmed, she would recuse herself from cases involving the election and the challenge to the Affordable Care Act.
“Republicans are scrambling to confirm this nominee as fast as possible because they need one more Trump judge on the bench before Nov. 10 to win and strike down the Affordable Care Act,” Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, a committee member, said. “This is happening.”
Time and again in response, Barrett indicated that she came to the hearing with an agenda: to assure senators she has no agenda. “Judges cannot just wake up one day and say: ‘ I have an agenda. I like guns. I hate abortion,’ and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world,” she said.
Despite efforts by Democrats to paint her as a hard- right conservative, Barrett refused to be pinned down on such hotbutton issues as race and LGBTQ rights. When the subject of racial justice came up, she recounted how she wept with one of her daughters, who is Black and adopted from Haiti, over the death of George Floyd while being pinned down by police in Minneapolis.
“Racism persists in our country,” she said, later condemning white supremacy and acknowledging that there is implicit bias in the criminal justice system.
But she said fixing racism is a question for the other branches of government to handle.
And while she indicated that the court’s 2015 decision upholding samesex marriage was unlikely to be overruled, she angered the LGBTQ community by referring to “sexual preference” rather than “sexual orientation.”
Barrett sought to define herself as someone who puts personal views aside and addresses legal issues with an open mind. “I have made no commitment to anyone, not in the Senate, not over at the White House, about how I would decide any case,” she said.
Democrats have complained about the timing and circumstances of the nomination, which could produce a 6- 3 conservative majority on the court for decades to come.
On abortion, Barrett said she understood why Democrats wanted to know her views on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationwide, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the right in 1992. “I have no agenda to try and overrule Casey,” she said. “I have an agenda to stick to the rule of law and decide cases as they come.”
On health care, Barrett said her prior criticisms of the court’s rulings upholding the Affordable Care Act do not apply to the case set for oral argument next month.
“I’m not here on a mission to destroy the Affordable Care Act,” she said.