“We shake hands before we go on the bench.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett offered that small ritual on Thursday as proof that the Supreme Court’s sharpest disagreements stay on the page and out of the hallway.
Speaking to a packed Culbreth Theatre at the University of Virginia, Barrett said being the final word on the law can set colleagues against each other, but the justices work hard to keep personal feeling out of it. “When you read opinions, you can see quite vigorous debate,” she said. “I think what you won’t see, or very rarely see, is for it to be personal.”
The friendships, she explained, are built deliberately and apart from whatever case is in dispute. “We have lunch together. We talk together.”
Law, not policy
Barrett was on campus for a fireside chat with UVA law professor John C. Jeffries Jr. about life on the court and her new book, “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution.” The Karsh Institute of Democracy hosted the event with the School of Law’s Karsh Center for Law and Democracy.
Appointed to the court in 2020 by President Donald Trump, she walked through the legal theories judges use to interpret cases and said the justices decide on the law, not on public opinion or political preference. She drew a line between her court and the legislature. “I think it’s crucial to understand that the court isn’t the same thing as Congress, and that the court isn’t in the business of making policy and choosing between two sides based on what the court thinks is the better policy objective,” she said. “What we are trying to do is apply the law.”
Anger after the rulings
Decisions do make people angry, Barrett said, at times including the president, and they have drawn threats on social media and in other public forums. “We certainly live in a time and in a climate where people are quick to say things,” she said.
She recalled talking with a member of the House of Representatives whose business back in her district had been vandalized. “I think we live in a time where, unfortunately, the threat of violence is sort of out there, lurking,” Barrett said.
