Amy Coney Barrett seen again to break ranks with Supreme Court conservatives: experts
After the last few Supreme Court decisions, legal analysts wonder if one of the conservative justices is beginning to turn more moderate on some issues.
In a case involving whether those with a history of domestic violence can keep guns, Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the liberal justices on the High Court.
In a case last week having to do with trademark laws, Barrett went so far as to write that Justice Clarence Thomas 'Is wrong twice over" in his reasoning that he had to rely on “history and tradition." She added, "the views of preceding generations can persuade, and, in the realm of stare decisis, even bind." The Latin term is the principle that courts must adhere to previous rulings.
“But tradition is not an end in itself — and I fear that the Court uses it that way here," she continued.
Legal analysts wondered if this was a jab at outright originalism.
Speaking to MSNBC on Thursday, Politico legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein said that it appears that Barrett is turning to question how the Supreme Court should be using history in crafting its opinion.
"It's worth remembering that Justice Barrett obviously went along with the court in Dobbs two years ago, overturning the federal constitutional right to abortion after nearly half a century," he recalled. The opinion had a lot of history included in it, and "relied on authorities going back to the 1600s at least, which was kind of mocked in some circles. She went along with that."
Gerstein thinks that Barrett is starting to draw some lines about how much she's willing to rely on history.
"One really does have to wonder if that's because she's nervous about some of the implications of doing that the way Justice Thomas and Justices Niel Gorsuch and Samuel Alito often seek to do in other cases like the domestic violence-related gun case that you just mentioned a moment ago," he said.
In that case, a Texas man was subject to a domestic violence restraining order which blocked him from possessing a gun. He challenged it on Second Amendment grounds.
Former prosecutor Joyce Vance said that such a belief by Barrett could impact Donald Trump's immunity claims. The idea of trusting history and tradition is also a history and tradition in which women didn't have any status, and Black people were not considered full people.
Barrett is still fairly new to the court, while other justices have expressed hundreds of opinions.
"But we see her trying to set a more moderate approach," said Vance.
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