https://www.wsj.com/articles/whos-afraid-of-amy-coney-barrett-11602629853?mod=opinion_lead_pos1
The Senate confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett may lack for political drama, but they are still instructive. They are revealing the deep fault lines over the Supreme Court, and how Democrats view it as a mini-legislature to achieve policy goals, rather than a real judicial body.
Democrats are asking very little about the actual law or Judge Barrett’s jurisprudential thinking. Instead, one after another, Democrats have used their time to focus on a parade of policy horribles if she is confirmed. And for emotional effect, they brought along photo displays of children and women who would supposedly be her victims on health care, abortion, gun violence and more.
All of this distorts the role of a judge, who has to rule based on what the law is, not on what she would want it to be. “Judges can’t just wake up one day and say ‘I have an agenda. I like guns. I hate guns. I like abortion, I hate abortion’ and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world,” Judge Barrett said Tuesday. But that is lost on Democrats, who are treating the hearings like a campaign rally.