Pete Buttigieg Says Supreme Court Justices Shouldn’t Be ‘Time-Traveling… Back to the 18th Century’

We reported earlier about Minnesota House Rep. Ilhan Omar’s appearance on MSNBC’s AM Joy and former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg also appeared on the show yesterday.

Buttigieg spent the beginning talking about what he would tell LGBTQ people who are thinking about coming out and how they should do it.

Halfway through the interview, an excerpt of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s opening statement for her Supreme Court nomination hearing was received and shared with Buttigieg.

Buttigieg first said that if Judge Barrett were to rule gay marriage to be unconstitutional, would that be “fairly reasoned?”

Another clip of the interview shows him saying, “This is what nominees do. They write the most seemingly unobjectionable, dry stuff. But really what I see in there is a pathway to judicial activism cloaked in judicial humility.”

Buttigieg continued, “At the end of the day, rights have been expanded because courts have understood what the true meaning of the letter of the law and the spirit of the Constitution is and that is not about time traveling yourself back to the 18th century and subjecting yourself to the same prejudices and limitations as the people who write these words.”

“The Constitution is a living document because the English language is a living language and you need to have some readiness to understand that in order to serve on the court in a way that is actually going to make life better,” he believes.

“This is what nominees do. They write the most seemingly unobjectionable, dry stuff. But really what I see in there is a pathway to judicial activism cloaked in judicial humility.” –@PeteButtigieg pic.twitter.com/Ns4efrX9DB

— Vanita Gupta (@vanitaguptaCR) October 11, 2020

Comments Buttigieg made about abortion in a Fox News town hall event on May 19, 2019 hosted by Chris Wallace have recently resurfaced.

Wallace asked Buttigieg if he believed “at any point in pregnancy, that there should be any limit on a woman’s right to an abortion?”

Buttigieg responded, “I think the dialogue has gotten so caught up on when you draw the line that we’ve gotten away from the fundamental question of who gets to draw the line and I trust women to draw the line.”