Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Amy Coney Barrett, in appearances spaced roughly a week apart at Southern Methodist University’s campus in Dallas, steered clear of criticizing their colleagues following recent controversial statements made by justices at other university events.
Their visits to Texas – Jackson’s on Tuesday at SMU’s McFarlin Memorial Auditorium and Barrett’s last week at the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the same campus – came as public confidence in the Supreme Court remains strained after years of bruising confirmation fights, sharp ideological rulings and escalating political attacks tied to major cases.
Jackson’s talk on Tuesday was part of the university’s Tate Lecture Series and was moderated by Tina Perry, president of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Jackson spoke earlier in the day to a mostly student audience, where she warned that attacks on judges and efforts to undermine the courts threaten judicial independence and, ultimately, democracy, according to a report by Politico.
Her later talk focused almost entirely on her personal life, as she told the audience of more than 2,000 about the role her family played in her success and how her love story with her husband began when they were both students at Harvard. The only time she discussed the court was when she described some of its long-held formal rituals, such as how the justices always shake hands before going onto the bench or into conference.
Barrett downplayed divisions among the justices during her May 4 speaking engagement at the presidential center, despite inflammatory comments justices have made about their colleagues during recent appearances at other college campuses and a fiery exchange from the bench last week over the Voting Rights Act.
In an April 7 talk at the University of Kansas Law School, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized Brett Kavanaugh, suggesting he was privileged and probably never knew anyone who got paid by the hour. She later apologized.
At an April 13 lecture at Yale Law School, Jackson criticized her conservative colleagues for their use of emergency orders that favored the Trump administration. She later issued an apology. During the debate last week over the Voting Rights Act, she accused them of violating the court’s principles in an effort to influence the November election.
And Clarence Thomas last month at The University of Texas at Austin blasted progressivism as a threat to the nation. He also said his prior description of friendships among justices across ideologies “was a different court.”
Barrett’s event at the presidential center largely centered around her new memoir. Justice Neil Gorsuch visited the presidential center a few days later to sign copies of his new children’s book.
Barrett’s engagement was much more intimate than Jackson’s. It was held in a smaller auditorium with about 300 in attendance and was moderated by the center’s president and CEO, Shilo Brooks. President Bush and his wife Laura were among the attendees.
Barrett told the audience that the nine justices on the court today are very collegial and get along much better than many in the public seem to believe. She also said the perception that the justices consistently vote along the party lines of the president who appointed them was incorrect. The statistics she cited as evidence were four years old.