MINNEAPOLIS — Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett appeared Monday on the University of Minnesota campus as a participant in the Robert A. Stein '61 Lecture Series, where she spoke for an hour and a half about her judicial philosophy, legal background and role on the nation's highest court.
Early in the lecture, Barrett also made national news by saying she supported a Code of Ethics for the Supreme Court, following reporting by ProPublica that documented the relationship between fellow Justice Clarence Thomas and top Republican donors.
"I think it would be a good idea for us to do it, particularly so that we can communicate to the public exactly what it is that we're doing, in a clearer way than perhaps we have been able to do so far," Barrett said. "I will say this: There is no lack of consensus among the justices... that we should and do hold ourselves to the highest standards, highest ethical standards possible."
The lecture series, moderated by former law school Dean Robert Stein, has featured both conservative and liberal justices dating back to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2014.
"We value both the pursuit of knowledge and the exchange of ideas as fundamental pillars of our society," University of Minnesota interim President Jeff Ettinger told the audience at packed Northrop Auditorium to open the event. "This lecture epitomizes our commitment to these values."
Former President Donald Trump appointed Barrett in 2020, solidifying a conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court that has since overturned the constitutional right to abortion and ruled that affirmative action violated the Fourteenth Amendment, among other decisions. At the same time, Barrett joined liberal justices in a ruling upholding restrictions on "ghost guns" this year and pushed back on the narrative that the court has overturned more precedent than previous courts.
"I don't think it's empirically true to say that we've overturned a lot of precedent, but we have overturned precedent, and every court does," Barrett said. "Overruling precedent is not something to be done lightly. But the court's own guidelines, that it's always followed for centuries, recognize that there are times when it's the court's duty to do so."
Barrett did not specifically discuss the details of any high-profile cases in Monday's lecture, although she more broadly outlined her judicial philosophy of "originalism" — meaning she interprets the Constitution as written and not necessarily as an evolving document. She cited the influence of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, whom she clerked for in the late 1990s.
"Justice Scalia was very well-known for his commitment to both originalism and constitutional interpretation, and textualism and the interpretation of statutes. And I would say you could boil both of those judicial philosophies down to the proposition that the text is the law and the text controls," Barrett said. "And I share that philosophy."
Barrett's appearance at Northrop on Monday was met with protests both outside and inside the auditorium. A group of a half-dozen protestors in the second deck, carrying signs referencing Barrett's ruling on abortion, shouted "not the court, not the state, people must decide their fate" before police escorted them out of the building. The lecture then continued without interruption.
Student groups had collected online signatures in an attempt to disinvite Barrett from campus, saying that "inviting Justice Barrett to the UMN-TC campus is a backhanded and hypocritical move from an institution that raves about 'diversity' and welcoming of 'an exceptional class of students that is one of the largest and the most diverse in campus history.'"
Professor Stein, the moderator, defended the decision to bring Barrett to campus.
"It's what a university should be, to explore different points of view, and I'm disappointed they couldn't stay and hear her explanation of the cases as well," Stein said. "Hopefully this puts a personality on the court for people and also helps them understand why the court does what it does."
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