An Analysis of New Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett

By Rachel Max ‘24 

    ​A mere nine days before the election that President Trump lost, his Supreme Court nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, replaced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This replacement has been highly controversial because of the circumstances of Barrett’s confirmation, the way her beliefs will affect the court and what some opponents see as limited qualifications. 

    ​Many people are upset by how close to the presidential election Barrett was confirmed, especially after former President Barack Obama was prevented from filling a seat on the Supreme Court 300 days before election day in 2015. This was based on the logic that a president whose term is coming to a close no longer represents the will of the people and the incoming candidate should be the one to select a nominee.   
    Senator Mitch McConnell, who fought fiercely to prevent Obama from selecting a new judge, worked to help President Trump get the confirmation through in time. In December 2019 on FOX News, McConnell openly admitted to purposefully keeping Obama from filling seats. 
FOX News host Sean Hannity said to McConnell, “I was shocked that former President Obama left so many vacancies and didn’t try to fill those positions.” 
    McConnell responded, “I’ll tell you why. I was in charge of what we did the last two years of the Obama administration,” and then proceeded to laugh. 
    This explicit admission shocked many people as it was clear that the rules were being changed to suit personal agendas rather than to keep procedures fair and consistent.
The hurried confirmation directly opposed Ginsburg’s final wish. Ginsburg’s granddaughter, Clara Spera, reports that before Ginsberg died she said “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” 
    People are worried about how Barett being on the Court will affect its balance. With Barett now on the Supreme Court, the ideological balance has gone from 5-4 to 6-3, leaning even more conservative than before. Ginsburg was a reliably liberal judge and analysis of Barett’s previous rulings suggest that she will be one of the most conservative judges on the court.
Many are concerned about what rulings might be passed with Barrett in the court. Some Americans are so concerned about what Barrett might do in regards to same-sex marriage laws that they are rushing to get married before that right is possibly taken away. People also are worried about the loss of women’s reproductive rights; Barrett has shown herself to be pro-life. With her strong Catholic faith and a very pro-life belief, there is concern over what she would rule in a case about access to birth control and abortion rights.
    Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, Barrett’s longtime mentor, told the Times: “Her religious convictions are pro-life, and she lives those convictions. The question of what we believe as a religious matter has nothing to do with what we believe a written document says.” 
“A vote for Barrett is a vote to strip health care from millions of people,” Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren said. “It’s a vote to turn back the clock on reproductive freedom. To endanger Dreamers and immigrants. To let climate change rampage unchecked. To imperial efforts to address systemic racism. To place workers’ rights, voting rights, LGTBQ rights, and gun violence prevention at risk.” 
    There is concern about how qualified Barrett is to be a justice in the first place. Barrett will be the only judge on the court to not have attended either Yale or Harvard law schools. Barrett instead attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, a private Catholic college.
Barrett also has very little experience as a judge. Barrett spent only three years on the Seventh Circuit, a position she also was nominated for by President Trump. Prior to that nomination in 2017, Barrett had been a law professor at the University of Notre Dame for 15 years.
Other prospective justices had tens to hundreds of thousands of pages of material to be reviewed. Barrett came in with a mere 1,800 pages of material.
With all these arguments stacked against her, how did Barrett manage to become a Supreme Court Justice so quickly?
    Angie Maxwell, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas believes Barrett was only selected thanks to her connections and conservative beliefs. “How did she go from really good law professor to the shortlist? That’s not from being a law professor. That’s from partisan networks and groups she worked with, and that’s what’s concerning.”