Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett said Monday she hoped the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk would mark a turning point in the United States, calling for more civil engagement and warning that verbal attacks can spill over into physical violence.
Barrett made the remarks during an appearance on The Hugh Hewitt Show, where host Hugh Hewitt cited a passage from her new book, Listening to the Law. In the passage, she wrote that sparring with intellectual opponents is a way to hear the other side and that "Shunning others just because they disagree with you is also a recipe for a lonely and ultimately unhappy life." Hewitt asked whether the nation might hear that message more clearly in the wake of Kirk's killing.
"I really hope that the assassination of Charlie Kirk is a turning point for us as a society where we look and see where things have come, the point at which we’ve come to in the United States," Barrett said. She told Hewitt that when engaging the other side Americans should be "engaging ideas, and we’re not trying to attack or tear down people. And there’s a huge difference between the two."
Barrett added that though many attacks are verbal, "too often, I guess we’re now seeing that verbal attacks can spill over into something more sinister." She said she had been on the Notre Dame campus after Kirk's assassination and described the mood as somber, calling the killing of a father and husband "a tragedy and certainly sobering for the nation." She said a culture in which political discourse leads to violence is unacceptable.
The interview is part of a series of media appearances Barrett has made to discuss her book. In an earlier television interview with CBS anchor Margaret Brennan on Sept. 7, Barrett defended the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, saying Dobbs did not make abortion illegal and did not address whether abortion is immoral. "Dobbs said that these are questions that are left to the states," she told Brennan.
Barrett's comments on civility underscore concerns among public figures across the political spectrum about rising polarization and the potential for heated rhetoric to escalate into physical harm. The assassination of Kirk, a prominent conservative commentator and founder of Turning Point USA, prompted public expressions of shock and calls for lowering the temperature of political debate from leaders and commentators.
The justice has faced public scrutiny during past appearances, and her recent interviews have highlighted both legal themes from her book and ongoing debates about the role of courts in resolving politically charged issues. In urging engagement with ideas rather than attacks on people, Barrett framed the response to Kirk's killing as a matter of civic culture and democratic discourse.
A return to more civil exchange, she said, would require recognizing the difference between debating ideas and demeaning opponents, and ensuring that disagreement is channeled into democratic institutions rather than violence.
