Amy Coney Barrett says Supreme Court justices aren't "partisan hacks"
Washington — Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett argued Sunday that decisions by the high court aren't driven by political views and said she and her colleagues on the court are not a "bunch of partisan hacks," according to reports.
Barrett told an audience at a lecture hosted by the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville that her goal in the speech "is to convince you that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks," the Courier Journal reported.
"Judicial philosophies are not the same as political parties," she said, according to the Courier Journal, noting that the court is guided by those judicial philosophies, not political views.
Barrett, the newest member of the Supreme Court, said reporting by the media of the court's opinions and "hot takes on Twitter" make decisions seem "results-oriented."
"It leaves the reader to judge whether the court was right or wrong, based on whether she liked the results of the decision," the justice said, adding that she sometimes does not like the results of her decisions, according to the Courier Journal.
Nominated to the Supreme Court by former President Donald Trump after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal anchor of the court, Barrett was narrowly confirmed by the Senate just days before the 2020 presidential election.
Her confirmation expanded the high court's conservative majority to 6-3, and Democrats lambasted Republicans for moving forward with Barrett's nomination given the proximity to the November election. Senate Minority Mitch McConnell, who founded the McConnell Center in 1991, played a key role in ushering Barrett's nomination through the Senate. After Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, McConnell held his seat on the high court open because it was an election year, arguing the voters should decide the president who fills the vacancy.
During her remarks Sunday, Barrett also spoke of the public's perception of the Supreme Court, warning justices must be "hyper vigilant to make sure they're not letting personal biases creep into their decisions, since judges are people, too," according to the Associated Press.
Barrett's comments came after the Supreme Court declined to block a Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy in a late-night 5-4 decision earlier this month. The decision, made on its so-called "shadow docket," sparked backlash from President Biden and other congressional Democrats, as well as pro-abortion rights groups, who argued the order effectively reversed the Supreme Court's abortion precedents.
