Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings and the balance of power

by Special to the Justice: Sharon Fray-Witzer | 10/27/2020

Judicial confirmation hearings are not very entertaining TV. Nominees usually pledge allegiance to the “law” while avoiding statements about what the “law” is, or even how to define it. Yet Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett and her supporters claim that she is an “originalist”: they say she interprets statutes (including the Constitution) according to the evinced intent of their “drafters” — those people who wrote, amended or merely signed off on the law.