Meet Amy Coney Barrett, Potential Supreme Court Justice

BY Timothy Evans September 20, 2020

Donald Trump declared Saturday evening at a campaign rally in North Carolina, that he intends to nominate a woman to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death. Said to be at the top of the list of candidates is Amy Coney Barrett, a little known judge with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago.

Barrett has just under three years of experience on the bench, having been appointed by Trump in 2017. Previously she taught law for 15 years at the University of Notre Dame. Barrett, a devout Catholic who is fervently anti-abortion, is considered to be a jurist in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia who fulfills nearly all criteria on conservatives’ wish list.

Straight out of law school Barrett clerked for Scalia and she considers him a mentor. She embraces the concept of “originalism,” the idea that judges should attempt to interpret the words of the Constitution as the authors intended when they were written.

It’s uncertain what impact her religious beliefs might have on her decisions on the high court. During her appeals court confirmation hearing, Barrett said in that role she would “follow all Supreme Court precedent without fail” and would regard decisions such as Roe v. Wade as binding precedent.

But during a talk that she gave to graduates of the Notre Dame law school on what it means to be a “different kind of lawyer,” she advised them to always remember that a “legal career is but a means to an end . . . and that end is building the Kingdom of God.”

If elevated to the Supreme Court, Barrett, 48 years old, could hold the lifetime seat for decades.