Fox Legal Analyst Defends Amy Coney Barrett After Harris Faulkner Suggests She’s Not ‘a True Conservative’

Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley stood up for Amy Coney Barrett on Tuesday as host Harris Faulkner questioned whether the Donald Trump-appointed Supreme Court justice is “a true conservative.”

Turley appeared on The Faulkner Focus roughly an hour after new Supreme Court decisions — including those on birthright citizenship and state bans on transgender athletes in women’s sports — were handed down.

Shortly after he was introduced by Faulkner, he was asked point-blank, “Is Amy Coney Barrett a true conservative? What is the metric around her joining liberals?”

Faulkner’s question was spawned from the rage of right-leaning pundits who attacked Barrett for siding with the liberal justices on issues like birthright citizenship and mail-in voting.

“Well, Barrett has really drawn a lot of barbs on the internet and from many Republicans who are disappointed in how she has voted,” Turley began. “She has voted against the administration on some critical cases. But it’s important to also note she has voted with the administration on a great number of cases. She is a conservative jurist, but she is very independently minded. And I know that’s hard for people to accept”

Read the exchange below:

HARRIS FAULKNER: But I want to bring in Jonathan Turley now into our conversation, Shannon. Constitutional law attorney, George Washington University law professor, and a Fox News contributor. So I’m just gonna ask a plain blank question that I have seen all over the internet in recent days with U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Is Amy Coney Barrett a true conservative? What is the metric around her joining liberals?

JONATHAN TURLEY: Well, Barrett has really drawn a lot of barbs on the internet and from many Republicans who are disappointed in how she has voted. She has voted against the administration on some critical cases. But it’s important to also note she has voted with the administration on a great number of cases. She is a conservative jurist, but she is very independently minded. And I know that’s hard for people to accept. And with birthright citizenship, passions are high. There were good faith arguments on both sides here. You can’t really paint one side as outrageously out of line. This has been debated for decades. And when it comes to Barrett and Gorsuch, as good examples, I think that President Trump made this a much better court with his three nominees. They are extraordinary jurists. Yes, they disagree with him at times. But when they were nominated, President Trump said he wanted to have independent and principled minds on the court. He got them. And at times, they vote against him, but they often vote in favor of these conservative values. And this day is going to be a good example of why this mantra, to pack the court with an instant liberal majority, is so unconnected to reality. I mean, this court continues to exercise great independence and integrity. You can disagree with them. I have disagreed with them this term and in other terms.

Watch above via Fox News.

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