Jonathan Turley: Dems trying to get Barrett to recuse herself to 'influence' case outcomes

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Judge Barrett 'very successful' in defending originalism: Jonathan Turley

George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley, on 'Fox & Friends,' gives his take on Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Senate confirmation hearing.

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has been "extremely nimble" in the Senate confirmation hearings despite Democrats' "utterly absurd" attempts to get her to recuse herself if she gets a seat on the bench, George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley said Thursday.

The 48-year-old appellate court judge declined to say whether she would recuse herself from any election-related cases involving President Trump, who nominated her to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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"The judicial rules on recusal are meant to deal with issues where you have a personal or financial interest in the case or you were involved in the underlying litigation. None of those apply," Turley told "Fox & Friends."

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett speaks during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

"It would be facially ridiculous for a nominee to take herself out of a major challenge later just because she was nominated, confirmed before an election," he explained, "and you wouldn't want that because ... what the Democratic senators were doing was trying to influence the outcome of any case by getting her to remove herself and reduce the court to eight."

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He added, "That, by the way, could result in a tie, which is not what you want in a major traumatic moment for this nation."

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Turley slammed the Democratic senators for bringing in "highly inappropriate" photos of individuals who allegedly benefited from ObamaCare.

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Democrats, he said, were trying to make Barrett look like "some type of judicial serial killer like they were her victims. They're not. Those pictures are based on a wildly misrepresentation of the ACA case."

The ACA case, Turley said, wouldn't even result in the entire overturning of the Affordable Care Act, but is based on a very narrow severability.

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"So, it was really unfair to her but many of her cases were being misrepresented and it was hard for her to deal with that but I thought she did a very good job," he concluded.