Barrett to Senators: Courts Are Not Designed To 'Solve Every Problem or Right Every Wrong' Federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump's third nominee for the Supreme Court, is pictured in an Oct. 1 file photo. (Manuel Balce Ceneta - Pool / AP)
By The Associated Press
Published October 11, 2020 at 7:42am
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett will tell senators that courts “should not try” to make policy, leaving those decisions to the political branches of government, according to opening remarks for her confirmation hearing obtained Sunday by The Associated Press.
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, set to begin Monday, are taking place three weeks before Election Day.
President Donald Trump nominated the federal appeals court judge soon after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died.
“I have been nominated to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat, but no one will ever take her place,” Barrett wrote, according to her opening remarks.
Barrett wrote that she has resolved to maintain the same perspective as her mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was “devoted to his family, resolute in his beliefs, and fearless of criticism.”
She wrote extensively of her family in the statement and maintained that she will never let the law define her identity or crowd out the rest of her life. She wrote that a similar principle applies to the courts, which are “not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life.”
“The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the People,” she wrote. “The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try.”
Click for Full Text!