Judge Amy Coney Barrett is refusing to say if she thinks Roe v. Wade should be overturned.
During a back-and-forth question and answer session during her Senate Judiciary Committee Supreme Court confirmation hearing Tuesday morning, Coney Barrett made clear she would not give Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein an answer.
The Democratic Senator from California asked Coney Barrett at least three times, but she refused to answer, leaving Feinstein to reply, “it’s distressing not to get a straight answer.”
Feinstein continued, asking, “Do you agree with Justice Scalia’s view that Roe was wrongly decided?”
“Senator I completely understand why you are asking the question,” Coney Barrett replied. “But again, I can’t pre commit or say yes I’m going in with some agenda because I’m not, I don’t have any agenda, I have no agenda to try to overrule Casey, I have an agenda to stick to the rule of law and decide cases as they come.”
Feinstein moved forward.
“I don’t know if you’ll answer this one either. Do you agree with Justice Scalia’s view that Roe can and should be overturned by the Supreme Court?”
That’s when Coney Barrett appeared to hint that Roe v. Wade could be overturned, saying the “contours” of the case “could come up again.”
“I think my answer is the same, because, you know, that’s a case that’s litigated, it could, you know its contours could come up again in fact do come up, you know, they came up last term before the court.”
Feinstein concluded, “Well, that makes it difficult for me. And I think for other women also on this committee.”
Right wing extremists have been trying to strip women of their constitutional right to abortion for decades.
Mother Jones D.C. bureau chief and MSNBC analyst David Corn responded, saying Coney Barrett “signed at least two ads decrying Roe and calling for overturning it so abortion could be criminalized. That sounds like an agenda.”
Roe v. Wade is the landmark Supreme Court ruling that found a woman has a constitutional right to obtain an abortion. It has been the law of the land since 1973.
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