South North Carolina News

Robeson County Republican Party Chairman Phillip Stephens is praising newly confirmed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

"Justice Barrett is not only the right choice — she is a logical choice," Stephens told the South North Carolina News.

Republicans prefer justices who "simply interpret the Constitution according to its understood original intent — not advance conservative policies that Democrats fear," Stephens said, who is author of the book "Winning Elections: Behind Enemy Lines with the GOP." 

Democrats don't like "originalist" judges, Stephens said.

"Democrats fear justices who are originalists because they don't want original interpretation — they want judicial activism," he said. "Amy Coney Barrett is far from an activist and probably the most qualified justice on the court."

He draws a distinction between conservative and originalist judges.

"Let's be clear — she is not necessarily a conservative justice," he said of Barrett. "She is an originalist and not an activist, which makes her look like a conservative justice. There's a difference. An originalist isn't going to come to a predictable conservative decision. But a liberal justice will come to a predictable activist decision."

Stephens agrees with President Donald Trump's decision to nominate Barrett before the election.

"Sure you could see it being problematic if the Executive Branch and Senate were controlled by separate parties before an election," Stephens said. "But the responsibility of the president to make an appointment does not have a time limitation. He is president for four years." 

The U.S. Senate voted 52-48 Oct. 26 to confirm Barrett. Her confirmation was about a week before the election and 30 days after Trump nominated her to fill the seat of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Barrett's nomination process a "cynical power grab."

"Nearly every Republican in this chamber led by the majority leader four years ago refused to even consider the Supreme Court nomination of a Democratic president on the grounds ... that we should wait until after the presidential election because the American people deserved a voice in the selection of their next justice," he said, NPR reported