During her confirmation hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Amy Coney Barrett said it was a difficult decision to accept President Donald Trump’s nomination to sit on the Supreme Court and made clear that her commitment to the rule of law is separate from her devotion to her Catholic faith and her husband and children.
“I’ve decided to pursue a career and have a large family,” Barrett said. “I have a multiracial family. Our faith is important to us.”
“All of those things are true, but they are my choices and in my personal interactions with people, I mean I have a life brimming with people who have made different choices and I’ve never tried in my personal life to impose my choices on them and the same is true professionally,” Barrett said. “I mean, I apply the law and, Senator, I think I should say why I’m sitting in this seat in response to that question, too, why I have agreed to be here because I don’t think it’s any secret to any of you or to the American people that this is a really difficult, some might say excruciating, process and Jesse and I had a very brief amount of time to make a decision with momentous consequences for our family.”
“We knew that our lives would be combed over for any negative detail. We knew that our faith would be caricatured, we knew that our family would be attacked,” Barrett said. “And so we had to decide whether those difficulties would be worth it because what sane person would go through that if there wasn’t a benefit on the other side.”
“And the benefit, I think, is that I’m committed to the rule of law and the role of the Supreme Court and dispensing equal justice for all,” Barrett said. “And I’m not the only person who could do this job, but I was asked, and it would be difficult for anyone, so why should I say someone else should do the difficulty if the difficulty is the only reason to say no.”
“I should serve my country,” Barrett said. “And my family is all in on that because they share my belief in the rule of law.”
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