Amy Coney Barrett was nominated by President Trump to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s spot on the Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings for this role Oct. 12, and she could very well become a Supreme Court Justice following the hearings.
Barrett was born in 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She went to law school at Notre Dame and later became a notable law professor there. She was highly acclaimed because of her teaching style, approaching law from the outside and sometimes critiquing it. In opposition, her role as a judge puts her within the system and would apply the law as it exists instead of examining it as an outsider. She currently sits on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, stretching across Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
In 2018, Barrett was one of three finalists for the spot on the Supreme Court that Brett Kavanaugh currently occupies, so she has been on Trump’s radar for some time now. She didn’t initially receive this role, some say for her intense Catholic views. While her religion is a large part of her life and beliefs, Barrett has stated that religion or other personal convictions have no place in her or any other good judge’s decision making. Still, she is critiqued for having involved her religion in her career.
She hasn’t made many recent bold legal moves because a spotlight has been on her for a while as she has been under consideration for a higher judge position. Barrett would stand on the right wing of the Supreme Court, making it a 6-3 majority for Republicans. She stands for strong Second Amendment gun rights. Last year, she dissented a Seventh Circuit majority not allowing a man with a felony mail fraud to bear arms. Her dissent stated that because a man has a felony, doesn’t make him a dangerous person, especially in the case of mail fraud. She has also written a dissent to the case Cook County v. Wolf which allowed the temporary blocking of a Trump policy that would put green card applicants who apply for public assistance at a disadvantage, stating the policy wasn’t unreasonable.
A common worry surrounding the nomination of Barrett is that she would push for a reverse on Roe v. Wade ruling, which currently rules abortion legal. While she hasn’t made any recent statements confirming this fact, she signed an anti-abortion advertisement in 2006 for an Indiana newspaper. There are also worries that her religious beliefs would be at play in this topic as well.
Barrett’s nomination would shift the Supreme Court to a larger Republican majority, changing a lot within the judiciary system. In addition to anger regarding that, Democrats are stating that because the upcoming election is so close and many states already have voting underway, her nomination wouldn’t be fair this soon. While that may or may not be the case, Barrett could very well replace Ginsburg. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved her nomination Oct. 22, with Democrats refusing to participate in the vote. A full senate vote was expected Oct. 26.