Commentary: Tim Scott: Baseless Democratic attacks can’t stop Judge Barrett

Amy Coney Barrett is one of the most well-prepared nominees for the Supreme Court in recent memory. I witnessed this firsthand when I met with her last month, and her performance in her nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee proved that beyond a doubt.

Her legal bona fides are without question, and she very clearly articulated her vision that the role of a Supreme Court justice is to interpret the law, not create law through judicial activism.

Unfortunately, in these polarized times, this has not stopped Senate Democrats from painting Judge Barrett as a legal Godzilla, intent on ripping the columns from the Supreme Court building and burning down the judicial branch. Their disdain for this strong, independent woman goes back years, and began with unprovoked and unacceptable attacks on her Catholic faith.

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Judge Barrett repeated, ad nauseum, all week that she is “not hostile” to the Affordable Care Act. Yet we were all treated to 30-minute diatribes, some not even ending in questions, from Judiciary Committee Democrats on how Amy Coney Barrett means the end of health care in America as we know it.

I have many issues with the Affordable Care Act and how it has changed our health care system for the worse. It is fine to attack me one way or the other for my position. But Judge Barrett is now, and will continue to be, a neutral arbiter for justice. The Supreme Court should operate outside political lines, caring only for the rule of law.

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Fortunately for Judge Barrett, these misguided Democratic attacks regarding health care did not work. This has left Democrats with their final option — one that their presidential candidate refuses to talk about. Court-packing is absolutely on their agenda. To be clear, while they try to muddy the definition of court-packing to include simply filling open judicial seats, what Democrats want to do is add new seats to the Supreme Court because they did not get their way.

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While not surprising that a well-qualified woman nominated to the Supreme Court by a Republican president is driving Democrats crazy, it is still wildly disappointing. They cannot attack Judge Barrett’s record, so they attack her religion, her family and her integrity.

The good news is they will not win. Judge Barrett will be seated on the Supreme Court soon, and the American judiciary will be strengthened because of it. She’s not Godzilla but rather an architect of a better future.

Full article at the Post and Courier.