Justice Amy Coney Barrett argued that the U.S. Supreme Court “should not be imposing its own values on the American people,” as the nation’s highest court is being asked to review its landmark decision from ten years ago that made same-sex marriage legal.
During an interview with CBS News senior correspondent Norah O’Donnell, Barrett argued that she wants Americans to “understand the law” and that it is “not just an opinion poll” based on what the nine justices think.
“You know, what the court is trying to do is see what the American people have decided. And sometimes the American people have expressed themselves in the Constitution itself, which is our fundamental law. Sometimes in statutes,” she said. “But the court should not be imposing its own values on the American people. That’s for the democratic process.”
Barrett talked to O’Donnell before her book, “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution,” came out on September 9. At 53, she is the youngest person on the Supreme Court and might serve for decades.
During his first term as president, Trump chose Barrett to occupy the seat on the high court that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg occupied until she died in September 2020, just weeks before the presidential election.
The Supreme Court decided whether to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established the constitutional right to abortion, months after Barrett was approved by the Senate and sworn in as a justice.
In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned that judgment, leaving it up to the states to decide who can get an abortion.
Barrett wrote in her book, “The court has held that the rights to marry, engage in sexual intimacy, use birth control, and raise children are fundamental, but the rights to do business, commit suicide, and obtain abortion are not.”
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The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to hear a case brought by former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who is seeking to overturn the court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, a landmark ruling that established the right to same-sex marriage across the nation.
Davis’ attorney, Matthew Staver, expressed optimism about the court taking the case.
But William Powell, the attorney who represented the couple that sued Davis, provided a statement to Newsweek that he is “confident the Supreme Court will likewise agree that Davis’s arguments do not merit further attention.”
The case, brought by Davis—a former Kentucky clerk who served six days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds—could pose a significant challenge to federal protections for same-sex marriage nearly a decade after the Supreme Court legalized such unions nationwide.
Some justices, including Clarence Thomas, have signaled a willingness to revisit the issue in recent years, particularly as the court has shifted to the right. That conservative realignment on cultural matters was underscored by the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed abortion rights for decades.
If the court were to strike down the nationwide right to same-sex marriage, the matter would likely revert to the states—many of which have yet to pass laws recognizing such unions.
Still, some Democrats have suggested that the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, could dismantle same-sex marriage.
“My prediction is they will do to gay marriage what they did to abortion — they will send it back to the states,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a podcast interview with Jessica Tarlov, a co-host on Fox News’ “The Five.”
Barrett, though, rebuffed Clinton’s prediction.
“I think people who criticize the court or who are outside say a lot of different things. But again, the point that I make in the book is that we have to tune those things out,” she said.