WATCH: Amy Coney Barrett Delivers Opening Statement at Confirmation Hearing

Judge Amy Coney Barrett gave her opening statement at Monday’s Supreme Court hearings, talking personally about her family and her career — particularly the time when she clerked for the late Antonin Scalia.

Barrett talked about her seven children, her husband, and said, “My father was a lawyer and my mother was a teacher, which explains how I became a law professor. More important, my parents modeled for me and my six siblings a life of service, principle, faith, and love.”

She reflected on what she learned as a law clerk, saying of Scalia, “I felt like I knew the justice before I ever met him, because I had read so many of his colorful, accessible opinions. More than the style of his writing, though, it was the content of Justice Scalia’s reasoning that shaped me. His judicial philosophy was straightforward: A judge must apply the law as written, not as the judge wishes it were.”

“Sometimes that approach meant reaching results that he did not like. But as he put it in one of his best known opinions, that is what it means to say we have a government of laws, not of men.”

“Courts have a vital responsibility to enforce the rule of law, which is critical to a free society. But courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life. 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 continued. “When I write an opinion resolving a case, I read every word from the
perspective of the losing party. I ask myself how would I view the decision if one
of my children was the party I was ruling against: Even though I would not like the
result, would I understand that the decision was fairly reasoned and grounded in the
law? That is the standard I set for myself in every case, and it is the standard I will
follow as long as I am a judge on any court.”

At one point she talked about being nominated to the seat occupied for years by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, She said, “I have been nominated to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat, but
no one will ever take her place. I will be forever grateful for the path she marked
and the life she led.”

You can watch above, via CNN.