National Review: Barrett is a conservative justice

Marc Wheat wrote in NR:

Justice Barrett’s populist critics implicitly argue for a “conservative” form of living constitutionalism. Yet the Constitution is inherently conservative, which is why Justice Barrett has been part of the conservative majority in decisions overturning Roe v. Wade, diminishing the unconstitutional powers of the unelected federal bureaucracy, striking down racially discriminatory affirmative action policies in public universities, striking down religious discrimination in school choice policies, upholding presidential immunity from certain prosecutions, and ensuring that President Trump was not removed from ballots during the 2024 election.

In an April 9 memorandum, President Trump directed administrative agencies to find and repeal regulations inconsistent with ten recent Supreme Court cases. Justice Barrett was on the Court for nine of those cases and ruled with the conservative majority in eight of them, diverging from her conservative colleagues only on a question of timing, not on the merits of the case itself. Thus, even if judged purely on outcome, Justice Barrett has been consistently conservative.

According to former Scalia clerk Ed Whelan, the justice liked to quote Thomas More as portrayed in A Man for All Seasons: “And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat. . . . Yes, I’d give the Devil the benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.” Whelan’s fellow former Scalia clerk, Amy Coney Barrett, whom the president has described as a “very good woman” who is “very smart,” does her best to follow the law, and in doing so has repeatedly helped deliver legal wins for conservatives. The criticisms levied by her detractors demonstrate that they are populists, unmoored from conservatism.

Justice Barrett follows the law because she is a conservative. The liberty of every American is safer for her fidelity.

National Review