The Secret Code of the Amy Coney Barrett Hearing
Pay attention to phrases such as <em>settled law</em> and <em>stare decisis</em>, and a whole other layer of meaning will come to the fore.
It’s that time in constitutional politics again: Everyone is talking about precedent.
Amy Coney Barrett and her Senate interlocutors can’t seem to stop discussing stare decisis, the principle that the Supreme Court should show respect for its own past decisions. Barrett has fielded questions about what she meant when she called some cases super-precedents (Roe v. Wade was noticeably absent from the list). Almost quoting her mentor, Antonin Scalia, she insisted that she had no agenda when it came to abortion (or the Affordable Care Act) and would take the Court’s precedents seriously.
Does anyone in the Senate really care
