The Ninth Justice: Who is Amy Coney Barret?

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barret at her Senate confirmation hearings just two short weeks ago. Replacing the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Barrett cements a 6-3 conservative majority on the nation’s most powerful court. Source.

Following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the American public erupted with several intense emotions, chief among them being grief, anxiety, and confusion. Less than ten days after her death, President Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ginsburg’s vacant seat on the Supreme Court. The day of her nomination marked thirty-five days before the presidential election; the shortest period of time between a Supreme Court nomination and an election in United States history. This unprecedented act was met with debate and controversy -- many argued that the winner of the November election should have selected the new Supreme Court justice. As Supreme Court justices have life tenures and are appointed by the President, they are the most effective way for presidential policies to remain present within society long after their administration. Now that Justice Coney Barrett has been approved by the Senate, the Supreme Court is the most conservative it has been since 1950.

Before being confirmed to the Court, Amy Coney Barett served on the Court of Appeals for the Seventh District. She was mentored by Antonin Scalia, a self-proclaimed constitutional originalist who served on the Supreme Court from 1986 until he died in 2016. Mirroring his policies, Barrett strongly identifies as a textualist and an originalist, both of which mean that she claims to interpret legal text for the original meaning of the authors. She adjudicated three cases regarding abortion from her home state of Indiana, most notably joining in a 2018 dissent on banning abortions because of the sex or disability of the fetus and requiring abortion providers to bury fetal remains. On gun rights, she has previously argued that forbidding people with felony convictions from owning guns should not apply if the crimes were nonviolent. While on the Seventh Circuit, she allowed executions to proceed and supports the death penalty. 

Over the course of four days and nearly twenty hours, Amy Coney Barrett was questioned by 22 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her judicial history was highlighted in these hearings, but when asked about current affairs such as the Affordable Care Act and immigration, she declined to answer most questions, citing the precedent of earlier nominees. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, was the main subject of these hearings as the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case in which the decision could effectively strike down the ACA merely a week after the election. In response, she said that she was “not hostile” to Obamacare, but would not elaborate on the upcoming case. 

During the hearings, Amy Coney Barrett was criticized for using the term “sexual preference” to describe the LGBTQ community. She has since then apologized. She has also refused the title of “female Scalia” and insists that her Catholic faith will not affect her judicial choices. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota called these hearings a “sham” and urged constituents to call their senators -- “This shouldn’t be Donald Trump’s judge, it should be yours,” she said.