Pete Buttigieg delivered a powerful response to Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s opening statement ahead of her U.S. Senate confirmation hearings.
Barrett, a social conservative with a history of anti-LGBTQ statements, was nominated by Donald Trump to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.
LGBTQ advocates have warned that she will attempt to “dismantle” LGBTQ rights and Democrats have described Republican attempts to jam through her nomination before the election as “shameful.”
Ahead of the confirmation hearings, which began today, Oct. 12, Barrett issued the transcript of her opening statement to the Senate, and said that courts “have a vital responsibility to enforce the rule of law.”
“Courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life,” she added. “The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the People. The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try.”
Barrett’s words echo those of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who recently argued that the Supreme Court had bypassed the democratic process in its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
Her opening statement transcript was released while Buttigieg, the openly gay former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and former Democratic presidential candidate, was giving an interview on MSNBC’s AM Joy.
Buttigieg was speaking about National Coming Out Day, but was asked to give his opinion on Barrett’s statement, Out reports.
“This is what nominees do,” Buttigieg said. “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.”
He continued: “At the end of the day, rights in this country have been expanded because courts have understood what the true meaning of the letter of the law and the spirit of the constitution is. 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 will actually make life better,” Buttigieg said.
“It was actually Thomas Jefferson himself who said that ‘We might as well ask a man to still wear the coat which fitted him when he was a boy as expect future generations to live under’ — what he called — ‘the regime of their barbarous ancestors,'” Buttigieg added.
“So even the founders that these kind of dead hand originalists claim fidelity to understood better than their ideological descendants — today’s judicial so-called conservatives — the importance of keeping with the times. And we deserve judges and justices who understand that.”
Jack Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker and the Republican nominee for New Jersey governor, recently aired a digital ad attacking Democratic opponent U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill for backing the state’s LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum standards. Established under a 2019 law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy (D), the standards require middle and high school students to learn about the political, economic, and social contributions of LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.
The premise behind the law is based on the belief that teaching students about figures like Bayard Rustin, Harvey Milk, and Alan Turing helps reduce bullying of LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming peers.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg leads a new poll of Democratic voters in New Hampshire -- the first state in the presidential primary process -- emerging as the early favorite in a hypothetical 2028 race.
Buttigieg leads a crowded field of younger Democrats who were sidelined when former President Joe Biden opted to seek re-election. Biden ultimately ended his campaign just months before Election Day, hampered by concerns over his age -- 81 at the time -- and questions about his mental sharpness.
According to the University of New Hampshire's Granite State Poll, Buttigieg -- who ran for president in 2020 before joining Biden's Cabinet -- earned 19% support in the hypothetical Democratic primary.
Leaked group chats show Young Republican leaders nationwide praising Hitler, making "jokes" about racism, slavery, rape, and Holocaust gas chambers, and routinely using racial and anti-gay slurs to describe ideological opponents -- including fellow Republicans, according to a bombshell report from Politico.
The Telegram chat logs -- some 2,900 pages of dialogue spanning January through mid-August 2025 -- were obtained by the D.C.-based outlet while it investigated a separate story about the group's debts and alleged financial mismanagement.
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