{"id":2448273,"date":"2025-06-17T09:20:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T13:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-not-too-late-for-barrett-to-be-the-originalist-america-needs\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T09:24:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T13:24:03","slug":"its-not-too-late-for-barrett-to-be-the-originalist-america-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-not-too-late-for-barrett-to-be-the-originalist-america-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s Not Too Late For Barrett To Be The Originalist America Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fits-not-too-late-for-barrett-to-be-the-originalist-america-needs%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2448273&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article from The Federalist discusses the performance and potential jurisprudence of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney barrett, exploring how she compares to her predecessor, Justice antonin Scalia, and other Republican appointees. It highlights a New York times analysis that reveals Barrett&#8217;s voting patterns have shifted since 2021, with a noted decline in conservative votes and an increase in alignment with more liberal decisions. The commentary indicates that Barrett&#8217;s judicial philosophy remains uncertain, with critics pointing out her hesitance to engage in cases with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-judge-sides-with-gun-advocates-halts-parts-of-marylands-strict-carry-ban-that-had-national-implications\/\" title=\"Federal judge supports gun advocates, blocks parts of Maryland&#039;s strict carry ban with ....\">significant national implications<\/a>. Despite being pivotal in landmark cases like the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Barrett&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >approach raises questions<\/a> about her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ilhan-omar-blasts-stacey-abrams-for-opposing-georgia-boycotts-demands-support-for-civil-rights-movement\/\" title=\"Ilhan Omar Blasts Stacey Abrams For Opposing Georgia Boycotts, Demands Support For \u2018Civil Rights\u2019 Movement\">long-term commitment<\/a> to originalist principles. The article suggests that the American public needs justices who steadfastly uphold the Constitution, implying Barrett has yet to fully embody that role. the piece critiques Barrett&#8217;s recent decisions and calls for clarity in her judicial stance moving forward.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em>What kind of Supreme Court justice is Amy Coney Barrett going to be?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That appeared to be the question a new expose by <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/new-york-times\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New York Times<\/a> hack <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/jodi-kantor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jodi Kantor<\/a> attempted to answer. Published Sunday, the <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.md\/Qr1PU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lengthy article<\/a> features analysis of the Trump appointee&rsquo;s SCOTUS record thus far, as well as comments from former associates and Court watchers on her jurisprudence and how she approaches legal questions. <\/p>\n<p>The goal, as it seems, is to decipher whether the Catholic mother of seven will follow in the originalist philosophy of her old boss (former Justice Antonin Scalia) or go the way of disappointing Republican appointees such as former Justices Sandra Day O&rsquo;Connor and David Souter. <\/p>\n<p>But the answer isn&rsquo;t clear cut &mdash; at least, not yet. <\/p>\n<p>To be sure, Barrett&rsquo;s SCOTUS tenure has not been what many outside Court observers were expecting. Despite having clerked for Scalia and previously <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/07\/09\/amy-coney-barretts-scotus-tenure-has-been-disappointing-so-far\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">proclaimed<\/a> to share his jurisprudence, the Trump appointee has become a bit of a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/27\/amy-coney-barrett-could-be-a-superb-supreme-court-justice-shes-choosing-not-to-be\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wild card<\/a> on key issues making their way to the high court.<\/p>\n<p>A Times analysis of her SCOTUS career purports to show that Barrett&rsquo;s inclination to vote with the majority on what the outlet classifies as &ldquo;conservative decisions&rdquo; has declined since the Court&rsquo;s 2021-2022 term, while her penchant for signing onto so-called &ldquo;liberal decisions&rdquo; has risen over the same time frame. The Times&rsquo; review of Barrett&rsquo;s record also seems to indicate that her &ldquo;share of conservative votes&rdquo; has declined since the 2021-2022 term, slightly more than that of Chief Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/john-roberts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Roberts<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In interviews, some liberals who considered the court lost when [Barrett] was appointed have used phrases like, &lsquo;It&rsquo;s all on Amy.&rsquo; When Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan agreed on nonunanimous decisions this term, Justice Barrett joined them 82 percent of the time &mdash; up from 39 percent of the time in her first term,&rdquo; the report reads. <\/p>\n<p>As noted by the outlet, however, Barrett has been an instrumental vote in several high-profile cases that have come before the high court in recent years. Whether it was overturning <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> and <em>Chevron<\/em> deference, or upholding certain religious liberties and other constitutional protections, Barrett&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/07\/09\/amy-coney-barretts-scotus-tenure-has-been-disappointing-so-far\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">role<\/a> in those respective decisions &mdash; which Kantor whined has &ldquo;moved the court&rsquo;s outcomes dramatically to the right&rdquo; &mdash; was pivotal. <\/p>\n<p>But the bigger issue with Barrett seems to be her apparent trepidation in taking up cases with national implications that require the Court&rsquo;s immediate attention. In other words, she&rsquo;s a procedure-oriented justice who doesn&rsquo;t appear eager to address every major constitutional question that comes to the Court so early in her SCOTUS career.  <\/p>\n<p>Such a dilemma was apparently at issue when the justices were deliberating whether to hear the <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women&rsquo;s Health Organization<\/em> case that eventually led to <em>Roe<\/em>&lsquo;s demise. Echoing its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/12\/15\/us\/supreme-court-dobbs-roe-abortion.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prior reporting<\/a>, the Times, citing two anonymous sources, claimed that Barrett switched her vote on if SCOTUS should take up the matter. <\/p>\n<p>Per the article, &ldquo;Justice Barrett initially voted with&rdquo; Alito, Thomas, and Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to take up the case, &ldquo;but&nbsp;voiced concerns&nbsp;about taking on such a big issue so soon after her arrival at the court, then switched to a no.&rdquo; (Despite her alleged resistance to considering the matter, Barrett ultimately sided with the majority in sending <em>Roe<\/em> to the dustbin of history.)<\/p>\n<p>Given legacy media&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/anonymous-sources\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">history<\/a> of using unnamed sources to advance their preferred narratives, it&rsquo;s entirely fair to question the accuracy of these reported claims. But regardless of their validity, there are plenty of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/27\/amy-coney-barrett-could-be-a-superb-supreme-court-justice-shes-choosing-not-to-be\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">other instances<\/a> in which Barrett has shirked away from taking up cases of national importance. Within the past few weeks alone, the Trump appointee has sided with the Court&rsquo;s majority in refusing to consider pivotal matters involving the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/05\/27\/alito-thomas-left-stunned-after-scotus-refuses-to-protect-middle-schoolers-speech-rights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">First<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/06\/02\/scotus-rejects-second-amendment-challenges-to-maryland-ar-15-ban-rhode-island-magazine-cap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Second<\/a> Amendments.<\/p>\n<p>Such behavior could have been rationalized early on in Barrett&rsquo;s career as a justice. Her sudden appointment and subsequent confirmation to the Court occurred in fall 2020 &mdash; when SCOTUS typically begins their annual terms. The difficulty of having to get caught up to speed on the high court&rsquo;s 2020-2021 docket and assemble a team of law clerks and staff was only further compounded by the unusual circumstances brought about by the Covid outbreak and its accompanying restrictions. <\/p>\n<p>That Barrett&rsquo;s declination to take up significant cases continues to this day, however, is troubling. <\/p>\n<p>What is becoming clear, as further indicated by the Times report, is that Barrett is a justice who&rsquo;s still finding her way on the nation&rsquo;s highest court. While she has demonstrated an ability to adhere to originalist doctrine, her unwillingness to employ it consistently and hear cases that require its immediate application raise questions about what the remainder of her SCOTUS career will look like. <\/p>\n<p>But the reality is that Americans don&rsquo;t have time for Barrett to spend years figuring out what kind of justice she wants to be. <\/p>\n<p>For decades, the left has weaponized the legal system to target and harass those who refuse to kneel before their warped worldview, from cake artist <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/jack-phillips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jack Phillips<\/a> to web designer <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/30\/in-landmark-free-speech-decision-supreme-court-rules-government-cant-force-americans-like-lorie-smith-to-violate-religious-beliefs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lorie Smith<\/a>. In more recent months, this death-by-a-thousand-lawsuits strategy has been used to sabotage the new Trump administration. <\/p>\n<p>Since President Trump&rsquo;s return to office, left-wing activists and organizations have filed hundreds of lawsuits challenging his lawful attempts to fulfill the promises he made to voters last year. With assistance from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearinvestigations.com\/articles\/2025\/06\/12\/tipping_the_scales_why_so_many_cases_against_trump_are_heard_by_democrat-appointed_judges_1116070.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">predominantly<\/a> Democrat-appointed lower court judges, this judicial coup has effectively sought to stop the president from executing his Article II powers, throwing America&rsquo;s separation of powers into turmoil. <\/p>\n<p>Aside from Thomas and Alito, the other justices (including Barrett) have been <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/06\/11\/john-roberts-is-the-face-of-leftists-judicial-coup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reluctant<\/a> to shut down this unconstitutional power grab. Every day the Court chooses not to act is another day the votes of Americans who voted for Trump are delegitimized. <\/p>\n<p>America needs Supreme Court justices who will faithfully uphold their Constitution as written &mdash; not politicians who make judicial decisions based on what looks good for their careers or policy preferences. Barrett has shown that she is capable of the latter. Whether she decides to consistently stand by that jurisprudence and become the reliable originalist Americans need her to be, however, is up to her. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What type of Supreme Court justice will Amy Coney Barrett be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2448274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Amy-Coney-Barrett.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[23413,56628,57304,57303,32275],"class_list":["post-2448273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-barrett","tag-judicial-philosophy","tag-legal-theory","tag-originalism","tag-supreme-court"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Amy-Coney-Barrett.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448273"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2448277,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448273\/revisions\/2448277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2448274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}