WASHINGTON — Two members of the Supreme Court, one liberal and the other conservative, insisted during a joint interview on Thursday that relations between the judges remain warm and respectful.
“Basically, I understand that they are good people,” Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, said of her colleagues.
Judge Amy Comey Barrett, appointed by President Donald J. Trump, likened the court to an arranged marriage. “We have a permanent position, so we get on well,” she said. “You’re not going to break relationships with people you’re going to spend your career with.”
By the time the two judges spoke, they also knew that the court, in a series of 6-to-3 decisions divided along ideological lines, extend gun rightslimit the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to tackle climate change and increase the role of religion in public life.
“They knew more than we knew then”, Janet Tranan institute official who helped organize the conversation, said in an interview this week.
The judges, sitting side by side at the Supreme Court, were virtually interviewed by Akhil Reed Amar, a law professor at Yale. The interview took place on the day of the judges’ first scheduled private conference following the publication of the leaked draft opinion.
Professor Amar did not ask about the leak or any current affairs, and most of the discussion was about various aspects of education, especially citizenship. But the judges repeatedly went out of their way to say that relations between the judges were friendly.
“One of the wonders of being on the Supreme Court is knowing that all my colleagues are as passionate about the Constitution, our system of government and getting it right as I am,” Judge Sotomayor said. “We may disagree on how to get there, and we often do, but that doesn’t mean I look at them and say you’re bad people.”
In the term ending in June, Judges Sotomayor and Barrett Voted together 29 percent of the time pleaded in divided cases before a nine-member court.
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Disagreement aside, Judge Barrett said, “one of the important things about the court is that it’s a collegiate institution.”
“I have genuine affection for all my colleagues,” she added.
Judge Clarence Thomas, speaking at a conference in Dallas the day after the conversation with his two colleagues was taped, gave… a less optimistic account of relationships in court, comparing the leak to infidelity and saying it led to a loss of trust.
Judges Sotomayor and Barrett have made other public appearances recently, usually in academic institutions or to audiences sympathetic to their case law views.
In June, Judge Sotomayor spoke at the annual convention of the American Constitution Society, a liberal group. She then said that she hoped “to regain the public’s trust that we – as a court, as an institution – have not lost our way.”
Last year, Justice Barrett told an audience in Kentucky that “my goal today is to convince you that this court is not made up of a bunch of partisan hacks.”
She spoke at the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, following an introduction by Kentucky Republican Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell, who helped establish the center and ensured her swift confirmation.
On the bench and in her dissidents, Judge Sotomayor sometimes takes a sharper tone. When the abortion case was quarrel in Decembershe said she was concerned about what overruling Roe would do to the court.
“Will this institution survive the stench it creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are merely political acts?” she asked.
In a difference of opinion in Juneshe criticized what she called “a restless and newly composed dish” that was willing to reconsider even recent precedents.
In Posted another video on ThursdayJudge Samuel A. Alito Jr., the author of the majority opinion in last month’s abortion decision, spoke in a keynote address in Rome, at a dinner in front of the University of Notre Dame, of what he said were serious threats to religious freedom Religious Freedom Initiative.
“We cannot take it lightly that the religious freedom we enjoy today in the United States, in Europe and in many other places will always exist,” he said last week. “Religious freedom is fragile, and religious bigotry and persecution are recurring features of human history.”
In an interview this week, Yale Professor Amar said he was struck by the warmth of the two judges when he spoke to them in May. “My feeling is that these are two people who have no bad blood,” he said.
Justice Barrett said the court’s traditions — which include shaking hands before arguments, frequent luncheons where talking about business is prohibited, and birthday celebrations — foster good relationships.
“We’re coming together,” she said. “We sing ‘Happy Birthday’. We toast. And you know, we recognize each other as people celebrating the special celebrations in someone’s life.”
Justice Sotomayor said some of the court’s activities must remain secret.
“Nobody wants a recording of our vocals,” she said.