Supreme Court Justice Barrett hopes Kirk assassination will mark turning point

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett said Monday she hoped the assassination of Charlie Kirk would mark a turning point in the U.S., encouraging civil engagement with those who have opposing views.

Barrett was asked about Kirk’s assassination during an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, who cited a passage from her new book, “Listening to the Law,” in which she wrote that sparring with intellectual opponents is the way to hear the other side and that “Shunning others just because they disagree with you is also a recipe for a lonely and ultimately unhappy life.”

Hewitt asked Barrett if she thought people would hear that message more clearly now in the wake of Kirk’s killing. 

“I really hope that the assassination of Charlie Kirk is a turning point for us as a society where we look and see where things have come, the point at which we’ve come to in the United States,” Barrett told Hugh Hewitt during “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”

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“I think the other message in that passage is that when you do engage the other side, we’re engaging ideas, and we’re not trying to attack or tear down people. And there’s a huge difference between the two. And I think those who fall into attacking people primarily do it verbally and not physically. But too often, I guess we’re now seeing that verbal attacks can spill over into something more sinister,” the justice added. 

Barrett explained she was on the Notre Dame campus after Kirk’s assassination and said the mood was very somber. 

“For the father of two young children and a husband to be murdered in cold blood was a tragedy and certainly sobering for the nation. And I think it is a sign of a culture that has — where political discourse is soured beyond control and something that we need to really pull back,” she added. 

Barrett said that a culture in which political discourse leads to violence is unacceptable in the U.S.

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The Supreme Court justice has done several recent interviews about her new book, including one with CBS’ Margaret Brennan on Sept. 7 where Barrett defended the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

“Dobbs did not render abortion illegal. Dobbs did not say anything about whether abortion is immoral. Dobbs said that these are questions that are left to the states,” she said.

“And all of these kinds of questions — decisions that you mention that require medical judgments — are not ones that our Constitution connects to the courts, you know, to decide how far into pregnancy the right of abortion might extend,” Barret further told Brennan.

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President Donald Trump, and Amy Coney Barrett, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, stand on a balcony during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. (Ken Cedeno/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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