Amy Coney Barrett talks Constitution in Bentonville
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Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Olivia Walton. Photo: Worth Sparkman/Axios
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett discussed her views on the high court's role during a talk Saturday night at Heartland Whole Health Institute on the Crystal Bridges campus in Bentonville.
What they're saying: Barrett, who was appointed by President Trump in 2020, said she views the Constitution as a foundational document and herself bound to apply its texts, describing it as a "bare bones" document that leaves much up to the democratic process.
- "I think change should come through the ratification process. Change should come from the people," she said.
- Barrett rejected the label of "conservative" justice and identified herself as an "originalist" justice, as opposed to what she described as a progressive constitutionalism approach that views the court as a guardian of an evolving Constitution that the court can update to meet the current needs of society.
Driving the news: The conversation was the third in a speaker series, "Building Bridges," bringing together "thought leaders, artists and thinkers with differing perspectives to model civic dialogue and the power of meaningful questions," according to Crystal Bridges.
- The series kicked off with former President Obama, followed by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.
- Crystal Bridges board chair Olivia Walton moderated the hour-ong conversation, often using content from Barrett's 2025 book, "Listening to the Law," as a jumping off point.
Zoom in: Walton asked how politicized the court, which has three justices appointed by Democratic presidents and six appointed by Republicans, is or isn't.
- Barrett pointed out that about half of Supreme Court decisions are unanimous and roughly 10% are decided along the lines of the party of appointing president. She attributed the cases that do fall along party lines to differing views of the role of the court and interpretation of the law.
- She later noted that while she personally finds the death penalty morally wrong, she voted to uphold the death sentence of the Boston marathon bomber, explaining that the question she was asked is whether there was a legal flaw in his sentence.
Context: While Barrett has at times sided with the court's more "liberal" justices, including a recent vote to strike down Trump's tariffs, she's also voted alongside the court's Republican-appointed justices in some of the most controversial cases in recent history, including to overturn Roe v. Wade.
- Walton and Barrett didn't discuss the recent 6-3 decision to narrow a section of the Voting Rights Act that prohibited racially discriminatory gerrymandering, a ruling the NAACP president Derrick Johnson called "a devastating blow."
What's next: Crystal Bridges has not announced who the next "Building Bridges" speaker will be. The series continues through the rest of the year, and the exact number of speakers is TBD, Crystal Bridges spokesperson Emma Claybrook told Axios. Saturday's event sold out with more than 700 tickets.