Much has been written about Judge Barrett since the end of her tenure on the Supreme Court, emphasizing her independence and thoughtfulness and noting that she was both deeply conservative and cautious. For example, see NBC News and Washington post.
in today’s New York TimesLaw professor Stephen Vladeck discussed Judge Barrett’s performance last term in a column titled “The Supreme Court’s Funniest Justice Is Also Its Loneliest.” It starts with:
One of the more interesting predictions made by commentators when the Supreme Court’s term began last October was that Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was entering her third full term on the Supreme Court, would Break out of your shell and become the new swing judge of the Supreme Court, laying the foundation for the new swing judge of the Supreme Court.
The commentators were half right: There is no doubt that in reviewing the oral arguments and decisions delivered by the Court over the past nine months, Judge Barrett has found her literal and figurative voice and is easily the most interesting justice. The questions she asked in the debate were insightful. The analysis in her written submissions is painstakingly detailed.
However, the second part of that prediction did not materialize. Justice Barrett did side with some or all of the three Democratic appointees in several of the most consequential cases of her tenure, but few of her conservative colleagues supported her. In fact, while Justice Barrett established her principled independence from the center of the court, the other five Republican-appointed justices moved only further to the right. . . .
The justice embodied in all of these cases was one that came across in her writings as principled, meticulous and fair–no matter what the bottom line her votes ultimately supported. Many of us may disagree with the principles reflected in her writings (such as her majority opinion in one case holding that U.S. citizens have no property interest in the immigration status of their noncitizen spouses). There is no doubt that they yes Judge Barrett has worked harder than many of her colleagues to adhere to these principles.
In some ways, the article echoes the sentiments of Professor Noah Feldman, the liberal professor who endorsed Barrett’s qualifications when she was nominated to the high court. On the other hand, this article demonstrates that Justice Barrett is exactly the kind of justice her advocates and defenders suggest she is, and that her critics who paint ugly caricatures are simply wrong. In other words, if anyone is surprised by Judge Barrett’s performance in the courtroom, that probably says more about them than it does about Amy Coney Barrett.
