Conservatives under siege? Supreme Court's Barrett and Kavanaugh give advice to students.

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WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett told a conservative gathering that the best way to fight the kind of “poisonous hostility” that led to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s is to “show grace and strength in the face of hatred.”

“Fighting poison with poison doesn’t work,” Barrett said at the Federalist Society’s annual black tie gala on Nov. 6. “It leads to more poison.”

Barrett and Justice Brett Kavanaugh were the keynote speakers at the influential conservative legal organization’s dinner where they fielded questions from a moderator, including some that had been submitted by students.

Although conservatives have a supermajority on the Supreme Court and control the other two branches of the federal government, the questions focused not on their successes but on how to deal with feeling under siege.  

One student asked what the justices would say to those who feel Kirk’s shooting had a chilling effect on conservative speech on campus.

Barrett said they should not stay silent but should follow the example of Kirk’s wife, who forgave the man accused in her husband's killing and “fight fire with strength and with grace.”

Asked for advice for conservative women in law schools who feel marginalized because of their views, Barrett said they should not be afraid to be “countercultural.”

Referencing her seven children, Barrett said she’s done “lots of countercultural things in the course of my life.”

“In truth, being a conservative woman, in a law school particularly, takes a lot of courage and independence and in many ways shows more feminism than just falling into some predetermined vision of what a woman should be,” she said.

When the questions turned to the criticisms and even death threats the justices themselves have faced, Kavanaugh said he tries to follow the examples of role models like the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who showed “what it meant to withstand withering criticism, what it meant to be fearless.”

Justice Samuel Alito, who was in the audience, has likewise displayed courage “and the willingness to stand up for principle even when it comes at a cost, a big cost,” Kavanaugh said.

“If you don’t want to get criticized,” Kavanaugh said of being a Supreme Court justice, “this is not a good gig.”