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WASHINGTON, D.C., October 13, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Abortion quickly came up on the second day of the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, directly asked Barrett if the 1973 pro-abortion ruling Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided. 

I think on that question, you know, I’m going to invoke Justice Kagan’s description, which I think is perfectly put,” Barrett began. “When she was in her confirmation hearings, she said that she was not going to grade precedent or give it a thumbs up or thumbs down.” 

“And I think in an area where precedent continues to be pressed and litigated, as is true of Casey, I would be particularly — it would actually be wrong, and a violation of the canons, for me to do that as a sitting judge.” 

Casey refers to another pro-abortion ruling, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, decided by the Supreme Court in 1992. 

If I express a view on a precedent one way or another, whether I say I love it or I hate it, it signals to litigants that I might tilt one way or another in a pending case,” she concluded. 

Feinstein pressed Barrett, repeating her question, but Barrett only explained she was not “going in with some agenda, because I’m not. I don’t have any agenda. I’ve no agenda to try to overrule Casey. I have an agenda to stick to the rule of law and decide cases as they come.” 

Previously asked by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) whether she would listed to both sides in an abortion case, Barrett simply said, “Of course. I will do that in every case.” 

Graham also asked her if she could set aside her Catholic faith to rule according to the Constitution in any given case. “I can,” Barrett said. “I have done that in my time on the Seventh Circuit. If I stay on the Seventh Circuit, I will continue to do that. If I’m confirmed to the Supreme Court, I will do that still.” 

Judges can’t just wake up one day and say, I have an agenda,” Barrett explained. “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. You have to wait for cases and controversies — which is the language of the Constitution — to wind their way through the process.” 

When Barrett was being confirmed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Feinstein famously attacked her Catholic faith and told her, “the dogma lives loudly within you.”