Who is judge Amy Coney Barrett?
Even if she hadn’t been anointed by Trump to be the next US Supreme Court judge, Barrett was a serial overachiever.
Even if she had not been anointed by Donald Trump to be the next US Supreme Court judge, Amy Coney Barrett was, by any measure, a serial overachiever.
Any parent who juggles seven children – five biological, two adopted from Haiti, with a Down syndrome child among them – alongside a sparkling top-shelf legal career deserves respect.
In the White House Rose Garden on Sunday, as Barrett accepted an honour that will reshape America’s highest court for a generation, she said that at home she is just “a room parent, carpool driver and birthday party planner”.
But Barrett is now so much more than this. All of a sudden this legal professor turned judge has been thrust into the cauldron of American politics when it is at boiling point, just five weeks from a bitterly contested presidential election. At 48 years of age Barrett, if confirmed, will be the youngest justice on America’s highest court and the first mother of school-aged children. She would potentially hold the position for decades.
The extraordinary turn of events that saw Barrett stand alongside President Trump in the Rose Garden on Sunday will keep Democrats awake at night for, well, pretty much a generation. The death of 87-year-old Supreme Court liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg just weeks before the November 3 poll has allowed Trump to swoop and nominate a conservative judge, potentially tilting the nine-member court to a 6-3 conservative majority.
Because Supreme Court judges are appointed for life, this has massive implications for the court’s ruling for decades on issues from healthcare to abortion to gun rights and anti-discrimination laws among others.
When Trump was searching for a replacement for Ginsburg, Barrett was the perfect choice because she will be embraced by Trump’s base, especially religious conservatives, and she will be detested by the Democrats.
Why detested? The Democrat opposition to Barrett is based more on what they fear she will do on the Supreme Court rather than on her track record. Having been appointed to the US Court Of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit only in 2017, there is not a huge judicial paper trail to inform us of her judgments, although there are academic papers from her time as a professor at her alma mater, Notre Dame Law School, since 2002. But Democrats are worried that Barrett could one day vote to topple the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision that gave legal protection to women seeking an abortion. More immediately, they worry that she might join with conservative judges to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, which will be examined by the court in November.
The Democrats’ concern about Roe v Wade is not based on legal judgments Barrett has made on abortion – there have been no major ones. Rather it is based on the fact that she is a strict Catholic who is anti-abortion.
“Her religious convictions are pro-life and she lives those convictions,” says fellow US district judge and mentor Patrick Schiltz.
Barrett is married to Jesse Barrett, a former federal prosecutor she met at Notre Dame, and all seven of their children are under 20.
When Barrett learned during pregnancy their youngest child had Down syndrome, they chose to keep the child and she now begins each day by carrying him down the stairs on her back.
Raised in New Orleans, Barrett was the oldest of seven children to her father, an oil and gas lawyer, and her mother, a French teacher. She was a spectacular student, attending a private Catholic girls school before attending Notre Dame in Indiana. She won the law school’s highest scholarship for achievement and served as a law clerk to conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016.
Ironically, while on the Supreme Court, Scalia developed a close friendship with his ideological opposite, Ginsburg, who Barrett will now replace. Scalia said Barrett was the best law clerk who ever worked for him. Barrett first made headlines during her 2017 confirmation hearings for the Seventh Circuit court. Democrat senator Dianne Feinstein said of her: “You have a long history of believing that your religious beliefs should prevail. The dogma lives loudly within you.”
The attack was a badge of pride for some American Catholics who emblazoned the words “The dogma lives loudly within you” on T-shirts and coffee mugs.
In a speech in Washington last year Barrett said she had “anxiety about balancing kids and work”.
“What greater thing can you do than raise children? That’s where you have your greatest impact on the world,” she said.
But she said that with the support of her husband and others, she had come to believe she could juggle family and career without the wheels falling off. Barrett and her husband are members of a small lay-led charismatic Christian group called People of Praise, which stresses the importance of community life among all Christians, regardless of their denomination. Members often join together to share meals and attend weddings, funerals and baptisms. Despite her religious beliefs, Barrett maintains she will be a justice who rules strictly on the law, rather than on her personal opinions.
“Judges are not policymakers and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they might hold,” she said at the Rose Garden ceremony.
“If confirmed, I would not assume that role for the sake of those in my own circle, and certainly not for my own sake. I would assume this role to serve you.” Critics and supporters have been poring over her previous decisions and papers to guess how she might vote on certain issues.
Like many conservative judges, Barrett is an originalist who interprets the law based on its plain words, on what the drafters of the Constitution intended. She opposes interpreting the Constitution through the lens of today’s issues and causes.
“Amy Coney Barrett will decide cases based on the text of the Constitution as written,” Trump said on Sunday.
“As Amy has said, ‘being a judge takes courage. You are not there to decide cases as you may prefer. You are there to do your duty and to follow the law wherever it may take you’. That is exactly what Judge Barrett will do on the US Supreme Court.”
Barrett will now run the gauntlet of a rushed confirmation process given that Republicans are determined to confirm her appointment before election day.
When confirmation hearings begin on October 12 she will face hostile Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee, not least of all Joe Biden’s vice-presidential running mate, Kamala Harris.
But, despite the fireworks, it seems certain Barrett will eventually be confirmed – an appointment that will be felt across American society for decades.
“I have no illusions that the road ahead of me will be easy, either for the short term or the long haul,” she says. “I never imagined that I would find myself in this position. But now that I am, I assure you that I will meet the challenge with both humility and courage.”
In an America that is more divided than ever, Barrett’s biggest challenge will be to be good to her word and be a justice of the law rather than a politician in robes.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
In her own words: ‘Uneasy road ahead’
Below is an extract of Amy Coney Barrett’s address at the White House after President Donald Trump announced her nomination.
I fully understand that this is a momentous decision for a President. And if the Senate does me the honour of confirming me, I pledge to discharge the responsibilities of this job to the very best of my ability. I love the United States, and I love the United States Constitution. I am truly humbled by the prospect of serving on the Supreme Court.
Should I be confirmed, I will be mindful of who came before me. The flag of the United States is still flying at half-staff in memory of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to mark the end of a great American life. Justice Ginsburg began her career at a time when women were not welcome in the legal profession. But she not only broke glass ceilings, she smashed them. For that, she has won the admiration of women across the country and, indeed, all over the world. She was a woman of enormous talent and consequence, and her life of public service serves as an example to us all. Particularly poignant to me was her long and deep friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia, my own mentor. Justices Scalia and Ginsburg disagreed fiercely in print without rancour in person.
Their ability to maintain a warm and rich friendship, despite their differences, even inspired an opera. These two great Americans demonstrated that arguments, even about matters of great consequence, need not destroy affection. In both my personal and professional relationships, I strive to meet that standard. I was lucky enough to clerk for Justice Scalia, and given his incalculable influence on my life, I am very moved to have members of the Scalia family here today, including his dear wife, Maureen. I clerked for Justice Scalia more than 20 years ago, but the lessons I learned still resonate. His judicial philosophy is mine too: A judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policymakers, and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they might hold.
The President has asked me to become the ninth justice, and as it happens, I’m used to being in a group of nine: my family. Our family includes me, my husband Jesse, Emma, Vivian, Tess, John Peter, Liam, Juliet, and Benjamin. Vivian and John Peter, as the President said, were born in Haiti and they came to us, five years apart, when they were very young.
And the most revealing fact about Benjamin, our youngest, is that his brothers and sisters unreservedly identify him as their favourite sibling. Our children obviously make our life very full. While I am a judge, I’m better known back home as a room parent, carpool driver, and birthday party planner. When schools went remote last spring, I tried on another hat. Jesse and I became co-principals of the Barrett e-learning academy. Our children are my greatest joy, even though they deprive me of any reasonable amount of sleep.
I couldn’t manage this very full life without the unwavering support of my husband, Jesse. At the start of our marriage, I imagined that we would run our household as partners. As it has turned out, Jesse does far more than his share of the work.
For 21 years, Jesse has asked me, every single morning, what he can do for me that day. And though I almost always say “nothing,” he still finds ways to take things off my plate. And that’s not because he has a lot of free time — he has a busy law practice — it’s because he is a superb and generous husband, and I am very fortunate. I am particularly grateful to my parents, Mike and Linda Coney.
It is important at a moment like this to acknowledge family and friends. But this evening, I also want to acknowledge you, my fellow Americans. If confirmed, I would assume this role to serve you. I have no illusions that the road ahead of me will be easy, either for the short term or the long haul. I never imagined that I would find myself in this position. But now that I am, I assure you that I will meet the challenge with both humility and courage.
Members of the United States Senate, I look forward to working with you during the confirmation process, and I will do my very best to demonstrate that I am worthy of your support. Thank you.