Amy Coney Barrett is the new justice of the United States Supreme Court. She describes herself as an originalist, which is why her views are a concern for Democrats.
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The lace collar she wore around her neck had become the symbol of her fight for gender equality, so much so that after her death even NBA players — the famous American basketball league — wore it in her honour. Because Ruth Bader Ginsburg, also known by the nickname Notorious RBG, was truly a superheroine with a robe in place of a cape. She was the second woman in history to be appointed justice of the United States Supreme Court, where she never stopped fighting for what she believed in.
President Donald Trump wanted her seat to be taken by Amy Coney Barrett: 48 years old, Catholic, conservative and anti-abortion. Her confirmation was approved by the Senate with 52 votes in favour and 48 against: she is the first justice since 1869 to receive no votes from the opposition party — in this case the Democrats. "I will be independent of politics and my own preferences," she made clear after taking the oath. That remains to be seen.
Amy Coney Barrett was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and is the eldest of seven siblings. She herself has seven children, two of whom are adopted. She currently lives in South Bend, Indiana, with her husband Jesse. She is a practising Catholic and a member of the conservative group People of Praise.
In 1990 Barrett graduated from St. Mary's Dominican High School, then graduated with top marks in English Literature from Rhodes College. She went on to attend Notre Dame Law School, where, for finishing first in her class, she received the Hoynes Prize, the law school's highest honour. Alongside her legal career, Barrett also taught Law and Statutory Interpretation at Notre Dame. In 2017 she was appointed a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, before becoming a Supreme Court justice in 2020.
"Amy Coney Barrett describes herself as an 'originalist': this means she interprets the Constitution as it is written and for the period in which it was written. So in her view there is no room for interpretation, no allowance for updating to present-day times," explains Simona Siri, a journalist and writer based in New York and an expert in American politics.
I tend to agree with those who say that a judge's duty is to the Constitution and that it is therefore more legitimate to enforce one's best understanding of the text rather than a precedent one considers to be in conflict with it.
Amy Coney Barrett
"Roe v. Wade will probably be called into question — the landmark 1973 ruling that established the legality of abortion in the United States," Siri continues. Healthcare and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community are also issues addressed by the Supreme Court. "As far as the environment is concerned, Barrett refused to answer the questions put to her during her confirmation hearings, arguing that at this moment the climate represents a political issue and therefore she cannot comment. This has caused a great deal of concern among Democrats and among those who work on global warming, because it should not in fact be a political issue, but a cross-cutting matter that concerns everyone," the journalist concludes.
Today the Supreme Court has six justices who can be described as conservative — Chief Justice John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Barrett herself — and only three progressives — Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Such a strong shift in favour of the Republicans had not occurred since the 1930s.
The Supreme Court is tasked with ruling on some of the most important issues facing the country, performing as its principal function that of "judge" of the constitutionality of state and federal laws. With the 3 November presidential election just days away, even the vote itself could be profoundly influenced by the court's decisions, especially at such a delicate moment as the pandemic we are living through, which has prompted a great many Americans to choose to vote early, by post or at polling stations already open.
Postal voting has been widely criticised by Donald Trump and the Republican Party in general. In North Carolina, for example, Republicans had sought to reduce the deadline for postal voting to three days, a request that was unexpectedly rejected by the Supreme Court justices — a decision, however, that was taken without Barrett, since, having only just been sworn in, she chose not to participate. The real fear is that Trump, in the event of defeat, could contest the electoral result: at that point it would be the court's task to decide whether to invalidate the vote. And with six justices on his side, the tycoon's request might even be granted, thereby causing a gravely serious deadlock at the international level.
