Nov. 17, 2020
By Ella Tozduman
Staff Writer
Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed by the Senate on Oct. 26 to become the 115th associate justice on the Supreme Court. She is replacing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who served on the Supreme Court for 27 years and died at the age of 87 on Sept. 18.
Advanced Placement U.S. Government & Politics teacher Mr. Clifford said the circumstances of Barrett’s confirmation were unique.
“Justice Ginsburg is a legend,” Clifford said. “Not only that, but the timing of this is pretty crazy just simply because of the polarization of both sides [between] Democrats [and] Republicans and it being so close to the election.”
Barrett, who is 48 years old, was born in New Orleans. She is a mother to seven children and is married to Jesse M. Barrett, who is a litigator and white-collar criminal defense attorney.
Barrett was raised in a Catholic family and attended Catholic academic institutions for elementary school, high school and college. She attended Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 1994 and a graduate degree from Notre Dame Law School in 1997. In 2002, she returned to Notre Dame Law School to serve on the faculty of the Law School.
She clerked for Judge Laurence Silberman and then Justice Antonin Scalia, who had a major influence on her legal career. In May 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Barrett to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. She was confirmed for that position in October 2017.
Although Barrett’s views are controversial, she has earned praise and commendation about her work ethic, her job on the Supreme Court, and who she is as a person.
In 2017, her colleagues at Notre Dame Law School signed a letter supporting her Circuit Court nomination, explaining she was a fair judge. Also in 2017, a bipartisan group of law professors pushed the Senate Judiciary Committee to confirm her, and The American Bar Association described Barrett as qualified. Barrett also gained support from many Republican members of Congress who had positive opinions of her.
Barrett’s confirmation process for her position on the Supreme Court was contentious because Democratic members of the Senate and Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine voted against the confirmation. The Democrats demonstrated the polarization of the two parties by boycotting the vote and did not vote to illustrate their disapproval, arguing that the nomination was rushed and that a Senate confirmation hearing should have waited until after the presidential election.
Despite Democratic opposition, the Senate vote was 52-48 for Barrett, which led to her confirmation because it was a majority. Barrett’s nomination leaves the Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority.
Clifford said the process of confirming a Supreme Court justice comes down to consent and confirmation.
“This is what we have in our country as a check and balance. The president gets to appoint somebody, and the Senate is there to confirm,” Clifford said. “Throughout history sometimes we have unified government, and sometimes we don’t. In this particular case, there is unified government. As a result, [because] Republicans are in control of the Senate and the president, it’s going to be more than likely that they’re going to have a candidate who is conservative.”
Junior Stephanie Mizeski, who took AP U.S. Government & Politics last year, said she is not surprised Trump nominated Barrett because they have similar ideologies.
“This is what we have in our country as a check and balance. The president gets to appoint somebody, and the Senate is there to confirm.”
“From President Trump’s point of view, he sees this as an opportunity to choose Barrett, a judge who will most likely rule on matters the way he would prefer for the rest of her lifetime on the Supreme Court,” Mizeski said.
Mizeski said Barrett brings experience to the Supreme Court.
“[Barrett] has a thorough understanding of government, law, the Constitution and precedents. She has consistent political beliefs, and also has her own family life as a mother and wife,” Mizeski said.
Barrett’s ideology is conservative and she follows the judicial restraint approach. She is an originalist and textualist, meaning that she believes in following the words of the Constitution as they were originally written and applying them to the cases that come before her.
Barrett is against abortion. Therefore, there is speculation she will try to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that held that the government will protect and not restrict a pregnant woman’s right to have an abortion.
Barrett also opposes the Affordable Care Act. She wants to protect gun rights and has explained that the government should restrict guns only from dangerous people, as she wrote in her dissent in the 2019 7th Circuit court case Kanter v. Barr.
Mizeski said although some people fear that a pro-life conservative justice might try to restrict women’s rights, the precedents that are in place cannot be easily overturned.
“Many liberal idealists claim she is going to reverse everything Ruth Bader Ginsburg has done, which is simply not the case. Women’s rights, I confidently say, will never disappear in a second or… out of the blue,” Mizeski said.
Junior Emma Rodrigues, who also took AP U.S. Government & Politics last year, said it is important for Supreme Court justices to have an open mind.
“Time is constantly changing, and so [are] people’s ideologies,” Rodrigues said. “Justices should be able to listen to the arguments of the petitioner and respondent. From this, they should be able to use their interpretation of the Constitution,” Rodrigues said.
Rodrigues said Barrett should make an effort to protect the rights that Ginsburg, a democratic Justice who fought for women’s rights, worked to solidify.
“I think in order for Barrett to protect the legacy left by Ginsburg, she would have to keep the precedents set in Justice Ginsburg’s cases,” Rodrigues said. “To reverse these precedents would be a push back on all the progress made years ago to give women their rights, which have opened up so many new opportunities for women now.”
