Just under 40 days before the general presidential election, President Donld Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat
On Sept. 26, President Donald Trump announced from the Rose Garden that he was nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
This nomination comes just a week after the former Justice Ginsburg’s passing. The president waited until Saturday to announce this nomination to pay respects to the late Justice’s showing in the Capital.
Over the last week, the president is said to have been debating who to nominate to the seat, although he did claim he knew it was going to be a woman. The list, however, eventually dwindled to Judge Amy Coney Barrett and Justice Barbara Lagoa.
Barbara Lagoa, the first Latina and the first Cuban American woman appointed to serve on the Florida Supreme Court, was reportedly being strongly considered by the administration for the position.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who studies federal court selection, said of Justice Lagoa that “she has a decade or more experience in the state system, which are cases of less high profile but are also different from the cases that are the Supreme Court’s steady diet.”
Regardless of her qualifications, the Trump administration went ahead with the nomination of Judge Barrett. Barrett is 48 years old, a member of the Chicago-based Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and was a former clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
Mrs. Barrett is a wife and mother of seven children, five biological and two adopted from Haiti. She is a self-avowed Catholic, a point of major contention in her 2017 confirmation with Senator Dianne Feinstein commenting that “the dogma lives loudly” within her.
As previously mentioned, Judge Barrett is no stranger to the confirmation process of the Senate, having been nominated by this president in May of 2017 to a federal bench. In October of the same year the judge was confirmed to work in the Seventh circuit by a vote of 55 to 43, garnering bipartisan support.
As far as her rulings from the bench, Barrett has been described by many as an “originalist.” Here are a few significant cases that the judge has been a part of.
In Kanter v. Barr, a man was barred from owning a gun because he was a felon, convicted of mail fraud. The judge ruled on the second amendment that it “confers an individual right, intimately connected with the natural right of self-defense and not limited to civic participation.”
The judge has dealt with abortion only twice, both in requesting for new cases to be heard, not in making judgements herself.
In Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. the judge ruled in favor of a law that would require doctors to inform the parents of a minor who was seeking an abortion. In another case, Commissioner of the Indiana State Department of Health v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. the judge ruled on two laws: “one that regulated the fetal remains from abortion procedures and another that would have banned abortions for reasons related to sex, race or disability, including life-threatening conditions.”
While the majority struck down the law, on the grounds that it was against Roe v. Wade, Judge Barrett ruled with the dissenting opinion, wishing for a hearing on the laws.
In a talk at Jacksonville University Barrett is quoted saying “I don’t think the core case, Roe’s core holding that women have a right to an abortion, I don’t think that would change. But I think the question of whether people can get very late-term abortions, you know, how many restrictions can be put on clinics, I think that will change.” This is a contrast from the staunch “pro-life judges only” speak of the president.
In Doe v. Purdue University, the judge ruled in favor of making it easier for those accused of sexual assault on university campuses to being a lawsuit forward. She said in the case that people should have a chance to prove themself innocent.
With this appointment, the next steps are for the Senate to confirm the appointee. With a 53 to 47 majority in the Senate, Republicans are confident in their ability to get Barrett confirmed. Though two GOP senators have said they will not vote for any justice before the election, even a 50 to 50 vote would be broken by Vice President Pence.
If Barret is confirmed to the court, President Trump will have confirmed three Supreme Court Justices within his first term, much to the chagrin of his opponents.
Edited on October 26, 2020.
Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court by a 52-48 vote of the Senate on Monday October 26. All Republican senators except Susan Collins (R-ME), voted in favor of the nominee and all Democrats voted against.
The newly confirmed Justice Barrett will be the first mother of minors to sit on the court.
Her nomination, and subsequent confirmation, was the closest ever to a presidential election. Democrat senators did not attend the hearing.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett is the third justice to be appointed and confirmed by President Trump, and will begin hearing cases immediately.