By EMMA ABBISS
Staff Writer
Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court just over a week before the presidential election by 52 votes to 48. As most of us know, Supreme Court Justices are elected for a lifetime. So who is Amy Coney Barrett, and what are her beliefs?
Amy Coney Barrett is a long term academic, appeals court judge and mother of seven. She studied at the University of Notre Dame’s Law School, graduating first in her class, formerly a clerk to Justice Scalia, and professor at the University of Notre Dame. She is an originalist, like her mentor Scalia, meaning she interprets the US Constitution as the authors intended, not moving with the times.
Barrett’s record on gun rights and immigration cases imply she would be as reliable of a vote on the right of the Court, as Ginsburg was on the left, according to Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University. Turley States “Ginsburg maintained one of the most consistent liberal voting records in the history of the Court. Barrett has the same consistency and commitment. She is not a work-in-progress like some nominees. She is the ultimate ‘deliverable’ for conservative votes”. Now, with Amy Coney Barrett in the Supreme Court, 6 Supreme Court Justices lean right, while only three lean left.
Barrett has repeatedly insisted her faith does not compromise her work, being a devout Catholic. However her legal opinions and remarks on abortion and gay marriage, have made her popular with the religious right, also bringing her opposition from liberals, according to BBC News. Barretts academic and judicial writings have been skeptical of broad interpretations of abortion rights, and Mr. Trump had vowed to appoint justices ready to overrule Roe v. Wade according to New York Times, which gives an idea of where Amy Coney Barrett stands on the subject of abortion. She condsidered three laws restricting abortions from her home state, and in all three, she expressed misgivings about earlier rulings from appeals judges that had struck down the laws. In addition to this, the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign voiced a strong opposition to Barrett’s confirmation, stating that she is an “absolute threat to LGBTQ rights”, according to BBC news.
Relating to gun rights, Judge Barrett states she would have “limited the sweep of a federal law for forbidding people with felony convictions from owning guns” according to the New York Times. Barrett wrote that the law forbidding people with felony convictions from owning guns should not apply when crimes at issue were non violent. It is likely now that Justice Barrett has been confirmed, that the court is to hear more Second Amendment cases, according to the New York Times.