Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett stopped at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Monday. Last year, Barrett released a book, Listening to the law; Reflections on the Court and Constitution.
Monday evening, she talked to Bush Center Chief Executive Shilo Brooks, answering questions about the Supreme Court's role and public perception.
"The Supreme Court owes its existence to the Constitution itself, but then it's the Constitution itself that defines everything the Court does," she said. "It shapes the decisions we make, it defines the extent of our power just as it defines the extent of the power of the president and Congress. It is what I think about, it's what frames my work, it's what frames the work of all my colleagues as well. The way I think of it is what the Court is being charged with carrying from one generation to the next."
Barrett described the Constitution as written in "broad strokes."
"The commitment to free speech, the guarantee of free speech in the First Amendment protects the principle," she said. "At the time of its ratification in 1791, people may not have anticipated it applying to television, radio and the internet, but that principle of free communication of ideas is one that's not restrained just to pamphlets, newspapers and books."
Barrett said justices consider it "very, very important to keep personal beliefs and personal convictions out of the law." She cited the death sentence for the man convicted in the Boston Marathon bombing. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been found guilty and sentenced to death. An appeals court reversed the death sentence, but the Supreme Court upheld the sentence with Barrett siding with the majority.
Barrett said her views on the death penalty were "on record" from an article she wrote as a law student. She described the death penalty as "immoral."
"What I think is moral or immoral is not, maybe, what you think is moral or immoral. We're committed to living by the laws that emerge from the democratic process. It's not my role, as a judge, to override that with my own view," she said.
In 2022, Barrett said the Supreme Court took 58 cases. More than half were unanimous or had just one justice dissent. Just five cases had decisions where justices ruled based on the political lines of the president who appointed them.
"That's a very different narrative from Republicans versus Democrats when you're talking nearly 60 percent unanimity in all these combinations. Does the public perception of the polarization of the Court bother you, and how do we change that perception?" Brooks, the moderator, asked.
"Yes, it bothers me because it's not accurate," Barrett answered. "Criticism of the Court doesn't bother me. Criticism of the Court's decisions doesn't bother me because people should be paying attention and be engaged, but the thing about the partisan breakdown, that's just not true."
A Pew Research poll last September found 48% of Americans have a favorable view of the Supreme Court; 50% had an unfavorable view. In 1987, 76% of Americans viewed the Supreme Court favorably, and 17% viewed the Court unfavorably.
Five Supreme Court justices were confirmed during the Reagan Administration; three of those were confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. Four justices were confirmed the first Trump and Biden Administrations; none received more than 54 of 100 votes. Barrett was confirmed 52-48.
"We're just living, and this isn't a news flash, I just think we're living in a very politically divided time. It's harder for people to come together," she said. "One thing I've experienced in Washington is some senators who voted against me, opposed my nomination or even were pretty aggressive with me in the hearing room, when you see them outside that context couldn't be nicer, couldn't be warmer. I just think publicly, maybe, it's just hard to show support for someone who's perceived to be from the other side."
Barrett urged people to listen to Supreme Court arguments online. The Supreme Court began broadcasting audio live during the pandemic. Barrett said listening to arguments can show justices asking questions, and justices and lawyers talking about issues, not politics.
"I think the casual reader about the Supreme Court or its decisions might have the impression we're just kind of up there, politicians in robes. That's not how the Court functions, and I think if you listen to some oral arguments, you see what the Court's about," she said.
Barrett said justices go to conference with no assistants or clerks. They vote and explain their reasoning, and Barrett said the most senior justice in the majority and minority assign who will write each opinion.
"When I say it's our most important work product, we're the only branch of government who has to publish an account of why we did what we did," she said.
