Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is defending her role as an occasional swing vote in the court’s formidable conservative bloc.
In an interview with USA Today published on Monday, Barrett, 53, maintained that she is “nobody’s justice,” and that includes President Donald Trump. If Trump were to phone Barrett, she said she “might wonder if he had the wrong number,” Barrett joked to the outlet.
However, Barrett said that she doesn’t like to be called a “swing voter.”
“Swing, I think, implies indecisiveness. You just kind of blow back and forth,” she said. “And that’s not how I approach the law at all.”
Barrett sat down for the interview as she made the rounds promoting her memoir, slated to be published on Sept. 9, Listening to the Law, which celebrates the court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. Barrett reportedly secured a $2 million advance to write it.
Barrett said that having a long-term view of the court’s role has guided her decisions.
“The decisions that we make about executive power today are the same ones that will still be precedent three or four presidents from now,” she said.
Barrett will likely see the court’s decisions play out across multiple presidencies; she is the youngest justice and the first justice who is a mother with school-age children. Her seven children, Emma, Vivian, Tess, John Peter, Liam, Juliet, and Benjamin, are aged between 22 and 11.
She told USA Today that there is a mismatch “between what the public expects and what the court’s doing because we’re looking at the long haul,” adding, “We all live in the current moment.”
When Trump nominated her for the esteemed bench, Barrett, who clerked for the renowned conservative justice Antonin Scalia, was assumed to be a reliably MAGA-friendly justice. Her nomination followed the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, after the Senate stalled hearings for Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Ginsburg. No Democrats voted to confirm Barrett.
Increased scrutiny into Barrett’s personal life highlighted the fact that the former Notre Dame professor is a practicing Catholic and was a member of an anti-abortion group. While Barrett did vote in favor of repealing Roe v. Wade, she also voted to reject Trump’s attempt to freeze billions of dollars in foreign aid and sided with fellow swing voter Chief Justice John Roberts in the decision to sentence Trump for his so-called “hush money” trial.
This is not the first time Barrett has spoken out against Trump’s MAGA base. As the Daily Beast reported on Sunday, Barrett is willing to be “unpopular” over her decisions.
However, the Supreme Court has also faced considerable backlash from the left. Democrats and MAGA skeptics bemoan Trump’s tightening grip on the justice system—an effort some federal judges see upheld by SCOTUS as it overturns lower court decisions related to Trump with little to no explanation. The politicization of the justice system has contributed to a years-long decay in public trust in the Supreme Court.
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