Justice Amy Coney Barrett once climbed priest’s fence in high heels to escape news cameras after church

Supreme Court docket Justice Amy Coney Barrett recounted an alleged pursuit by journalists that pressured her to hop a church fence throughout the time of her nomination and listening to for the place.

Barrett instructed the story onstage throughout an interview with the Reagan Library. The occasion consisted of a free dialog with Barrett on a variety of subjects associated to her life and work earlier than and after her appointment to the Supreme Court docket. Requested concerning the story by the occasion host, Barrett defined the problem of going out in public when the nation’s eyes had been mounted on her doable place on the courtroom.

“Normally the media vehicles would present up round 8. It was a Sunday morning, and I used to be going to go to mass,” Barrett mentioned. “So I left the home earlier than I assumed they had been going to return. One confirmed up, and I led them on a chase by the neighborhood as a result of I actually did not need to be adopted.”

KETANJI BROWN JACKSON CITES JUSTICE AMY CONEY BARRETT AS SHE DODGES QUESTION ON COURT-PACKING

“I used to be very pleased with myself as a result of I managed to shake them. I used to be assured. I parked the automobile at our church, and after I went to go stroll in, I noticed one of many suburbans that I acknowledged from exterior the home coming the opposite approach,” she continued.

Barrett instructed the viewers that she didn’t need to be photographed by the press popping out of the church.

“I made an exit out of a facet door earlier than it was over that I had by no means exited by earlier than – and it turned on the market was a motive for that. It did not really exit out. It fairly went into the priest’s personal residence and the yard,” Barrett continued. “And so I am standing there, I am within the yard and there is a fence and so I confronted a selection – I may both hop the fence or I may return out the entrance and provides them the image. So I made a decision in my excessive heels to climb the fence. So gracefully. And after I dropped down on the opposite facet I see our affiliate pastor who says ‘Amy, what are you doing in our vegetable backyard?’”

Barrett’s Catholic religion was a central concern in her affirmation as a Supreme Court docket justice. Critics speculated that her spiritual convictions would exert undue affect over her authorized decision-making. 

However a excessive courtroom feared by liberals and celebrated by conservatives hasn’t delivered as anticipated, leaving some on the appropriate to really feel let down. 

Through the 2021 Supreme Court docket session, some key rulings didn’t sit nicely with conservatives. The excessive courtroom did not scuttle the Inexpensive Care Act, higher recognized to many Individuals as Obamacare, which has been a longtime purpose GOP purpose. The courtroom additionally dominated in favor of a transgender scholar who didn’t need to use the varsity rest room assigned to his intercourse at delivery, a lighting rod concern amongst many conservatives.

And whereas the courtroom dominated {that a} Catholic social companies company in Philadelphia may defy metropolis guidelines by refusing to work with same-sex {couples} who utilized for foster youngsters, there was disappointment within the slim focus of the opinion. 

Following the ruling, three conservative Supreme Court docket justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch – seemingly criticized Barrett and Kavanaugh for being too timid.

The courtroom additionally declined in 2021 to take up an enchantment from a florist in Washington state who refused to make a floral association for a same-sex couple attributable to spiritual issues over same-sex marriages.

Choose Ketanji Brown Jackson dodged questions on court-packing from senators saying she’d comply with the lead of Supreme Court docket Justice Amy Coney Barrett and never wade into coverage issues throughout her affirmation hearings earlier than the Senate.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Sick., prefaced a query to Jackson about court-packing by studying a quote from 2020 when Barrett declined to reply questions on controversial public coverage issues.

“I cannot specific a view on a matter of public coverage, particularly one that’s politically controversial as a result of that’s inconsistent with the judicial function,” Barrett mentioned in 2020, in response to Durbin. 

“I agree with Justice Barrett,” Jackson then instructed Durbin when he requested her about court-packing throughout her Tuesday affirmation listening to, “in her response to that query when she was requested earlier than this committee. … Judges shouldn’t be talking into political points and definitely not a nominee for a place on the Supreme Court docket.”

Fox Information’s Justin Steinhauser and Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.