SCOTUSblog by James Romoser 10/14/2020
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett declined on Tuesday to answer questions about her views on the Affordable Care Act, abortion, same-sex marriage and a slew of other issues, saying repeatedly that she has made “no pre-commitments†about how she would decide any case if she were confirmed.
Rebuffing Democrats, she also would not say whether she would recuse herself if a case involving the 2020 election came to the court.
In a nearly 12-hour question-and-answer session with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barrett followed the practice of other nominees in the last two decades and refused to comment on any pending Supreme Court case, assess the merits of any past Supreme Court decision, or entertain hypotheticals about any issue that could conceivably end up before the justices.
Instead, she extolled the principles of textualism and originalism, and she pledged to decide cases without regard to her own policy views – or the views of President Donald Trump, who nominated her on Sept. 26 to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“I made no promises to anyone. I have no agenda,†said Barrett, who has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit since 2017.
“There are 598 volumes of the United States Reports,†she continued, referring to the official volumes of published Supreme Court decisions. “That’s something that judges build on. Justices don’t go to the court to start having a book-burning.â€
If asked to overrule an existing Supreme Court precedent, Barrett said in general terms, she would first consider the “reliance interests†of people who have benefitted from that precedent.
Rebuked by Democrats
The 12 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee praised her credentials and said she would be a justice who would neutrally follow the original meaning of the Constitution. Her assurances, however, did little to satisfy the committee’s 10 Democrats.
More:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/10/barrett-hearings-day-two-i-have-no-agenda/#more-296959
