Amy Coney Barrett

Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in on Oct. 26, 2020 to occupy the Supreme Court seat of the recently deceased Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

She brings to the Supreme Court, through her writings, judicial opinions, associations and actions, a history of anti-reproductive rights opinions, including against choice and IVF and anti-LGBTQ rights, including same-sex marriage to which she is opposed. The vast majority of Americans support reproductive and LGBTQ rights.

She has ruled that racist language does not constitute a hostile workplace and has been critical of judicial decisions that support the Affordable Care Act. She has ruled that convicted felons have the right to possess firearms and is widely viewed as supportive of gun rights. She ruled that a Purdue University student, suspended after his conviction for sexual assault, had standing to sue the university.

Barrett was born in New Orleans and attended Rhodes College, confusing the White House press secretary who proclaimed she was a Rhodes Scholar. She was not. She received her law degree from Notre Dame, where she taught for 15 years. Prior to that she spent two years in private practice dealing mainly with civil cases, without the opportunity to try a case or argue an appeal. She was appointed to her first judgeship in 2017, a seat held open by the Senate leader’s refusal to bring nominations to the floor in the Obama presidency.

Along with now Supreme Court justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, Barrett worked on Bush v. Gore, the lawsuit resulting from the 2000 United States presidential election. Her firm represented Bush in this action. She was part of the team involved in the legal suit arising when thousands of absentee ballot forms were given to the GOP to allow them to fill in missing information so they could be counted. A Democratic voter sued charging that these ballots should be invalidated. Bush won Florida by 537 votes.

Barrett was raised in a group called the People of Praise, formed in 1971 and based on a patriarchal interpretation by its two founders on the biblical model of family. Led by an all-male board of governors, the community teaches that husbands are the head of the household and the spiritual head of their wives. The highest office a woman can hold is “woman leader” formerly known as “handmaid.”  

Despite previous statements that a Supreme Court vacancy should not be filled in the last year before an election to allow the people to have a voice, Barrett’s nomination process, a mere 30 days from start to finish, was fast-tracked so a vote could be held before the Nov. 3 election. This was the first time in 151 years that a Supreme Court vacancy vote was not supported by any member of a minority party.

The vote to confirm Barrett coincided with the birthday of former Presidential candidate, Secretary of State, Senator, and First Lady, Hillary Clinton. An official statement from the GOP Senate Judicial Committee reads:

Amy Coney Barrett, confirmed. Happy Birthday @HillaryClinton!

In a related note, vote like your life or the lives of those you love and the generations to come depends on it. It probably does.