WASHINGTON –Today during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) questioned Judge Barrett on the attacks from his Democratic colleagues insinuating she would not rule independently. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here.
CORNYN: “Most of us have multiple notebooks, and notes, and books and things like that in front of us. Can you hold up what you have been referring to in answering our questions? Is there anything on it?”
BARRETT: “The letterhead that says United States Senate.”
CORNYN: “That’s impressive.”
“They suggest that you can’t be unbiased in deciding a case you haven’t even participated in yet. I find that insulting as well. Maybe almost as pernicious as attacking somebody for their faith and suggesting that that disqualifies them from holding a public office is the attack that’s being made on judicial independence.”
“You don’t run on a platform. You don’t say if I’m confirmed I’m going to do this or that. You don’t do that, do you?”
BARRETT: “It would be wholly, wildly inappropriate for me to do so.”
“It is your job to choose policy and then it is my job to interpret those laws and apply them to facts of particular cases, and they don’t always lead me to results that I would reach if I were, you know, queen of the world. I just don’t have the power, by fiat, to impose my policy preferences or choose the result I prefer. That’s just not my role.”