Barrett tells Sen. Feinstein it would be wrong to express specific views on Roe v. Wade during hearing

Amy Coney Barrett.
(Image credit: DREW ANGERER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) utilized part of her time during the question-and-answer portion of Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Senate Judiciary Committee Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Tuesday to ask Barrett if she agreed with former Justice Antonin Scalia's view that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided. Barrett replied that she "can't pre-commit" on any specific cases.

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Feinstein made a similar push on other issues, including same-sex marriage, but Barrett didn't budge, invoking both the current Justice Elena Kagan — who she noted had declined to "grade precedent" during her confirmation hearing — and the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who set the standard of "no hints, no previews, no forecasts" before confirmation to the high court. Some observers were confused as to why the senator didn't zero in on the fact that Ginsburg did testify that the right to abortion was a constitutional one, and there was a sense she failed to "land any blows" during her questioning. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.