Crapo Reviews Judge Barrett’s Rulings In Final Day of Questions

Washington, D.C.--U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) questioned Judge Amy Coney Barrett during the Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s second round of questioning as part of its week-long hearing to consider Barrett’s nomination to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Senator Crapo reviewed statistics of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s record while being on the Seventh Circuit, to again clarify her record as a judge who would follow precedent. 

Senator Crapo said, “Your majority opinions have been unanimous 95 percent of the time.  According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), in all the cases you heard resulting in a reported opinion, you only dissented 1.84 percent of the time.  That ranks you sixth among the 11 active judges of the Seventh Circuit--which is right about in the middle. 

"This report also says that your reported majority opinions drew dissents 6.41 percent of the time, which ranks you sixth among the 11 active judges--in the middle.  The reported majority opinions drew separate writings or concurrences or dissents 7.69 percent of the time.  That ranks you eighth among the 11 active judges of the Seventh Circuit, which means your opinions were some of the least likely to draw a dissent or a concurrence. 

"The point of all these statistics is this is not the record of someone who is an activist in overturning precedent. This is the record of someone who follows precedent.”

Senator Crapo also asked Judge Barrett to clarify her ruling on Groves v. the United States, which has been the only time she did not follow the Seventh Circuit precedent.  

She stated, “In that case, the precedent was old on point, and the Supreme Court had issued a series of subsequent decisions, which called our prior precedent into doubt.  So, the Seventh Circuit has a rule, Circuit rule 40(e), and we concluded, as a full Court, that our precedent should be overruled.  In this case, it had fallen out of step with the Supreme Court.  The full Court agreed.”

Senator Crapo’s full line of questioning with Judge Amy Coney Barrett can be viewed by clicking the image below.

To download the video, click HERE.

# # #