CNN has questioned if Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett can remain impartial on cases relating to guns or the Second Amendment because her family owns a firearm.
During Barret’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Chairman Lindsey Graham directly asked the nominee if she or her family owned a firearm.
She answered in the affirmative.
See the exchange below, courtesy of CNN:
Graham: Okay. So when it comes to your personal views about this topic, do you own a gun?
Barrett: We do own a gun.
Graham: Okay. All right. Do you think you could fairly decide a case even though you own a gun?
Barrett: Yes.
Then came CNN…
“President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court says her family owns a gun and she thinks she can fairly judge a guns case,” CNN’s Meg Wagner, Mike Hayes, Veronica Rocha, and Melissa Macaya wrote in a report.
“I own a car, and I could sit as an unbiased juror in a traffic case,” one user responded.
This two-clause tweet as a form of editorializing from news pages and reporters is getting tiring. In this case, the implication is absurd. https://t.co/0tTmEUGR4G
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) October 14, 2020
It should be noted that the reverse has been true in Congress for decades: dozens of legislators in Congress have written laws about gun rights without owning a gun or without knowing about responsible gun ownership.
Wait sooo… How can people who don't own guns rule on gun ownership then? 🤔
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) October 13, 2020
So the justices that do not own guns can judge fairly on gun rights?
— Sharts McGuffin (@ShartsMcGuffin) October 13, 2020
Points scored on this hit piece by #CNN on Judge Barrett… pic.twitter.com/RSXIX6F3Y2
— Wharfrat (@JamesHo03148924) October 13, 2020
As CNN reports, Barrett was also accused of being copy of Antonin Scalia, for whom she was previously a clerk.
In response, Barrett has described herself as an “originalist” and said she would interpret the text of the Constitution “as text.”
“I understand it to have the meaning that it had at the time people ratified it. So that meaning doesn’t change over time, and it’s not up to me to update it or infuse my own policy views into it,” she added.
“I would say that Justice Scalia was obviously a mentor and, as I said when I accepted the President’s nomination, that his philosophy is mine, too,” Barrett said via the report. “But I want to be careful to say that if I’m confirmed, you would not be getting Justice Scalia, you would be getting Justice Barrett.”