Amy Barrett
Appointment of Justice Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS)
Justice Amy Barrett is an American lawyer and former academic who outgoing US president Donald Trump recently nominated as a SCOTUS judge and later confirmed for the same position. She became the 5th woman to serve on the SCOTUS. Previously, she served as a 7th Circuit Court judge from 2017-2020. Prior to and also while serving as a federal judge, Barrett was a law professor at Notre Dame Law School. Justice Barrett’s Catholicism has brought much debate on her suitability, or lack thereof, to serve as a SCOTUS judge. This paper will discuss the arguments for and against her appointment and conclude with a personal opinion.
Arguments Against Justice Barrett’s Appointment To The SCOTUS
Justice Barrett was confirmed as a judge of the SCOTUS and became one of 6 Catholics sitting in office. She was joined by two Jewish judges and an Episcopalian who was initially a Catholic. Ruth Brader Ginsburg’s (RBG) death created a vacancy in the SCOTUS and to, which Justice Barrett was appointed to fill. This is in itself a reason for opponents of the appointment to raise an issue. RBG fought for women’s rights and became an icon for feminists. On the other hand, Barrett has been connected to the People of Praise, a small Christian group that has strict gender roles (Washington Post, 2006). This group views women similarly to handmaids, whose only purpose is to bear children. They also give men a leadership role in the family. Additionally, the group is against same-sex marriage, which makes Barrett a serious threat as she could vote for the Obama-passed law that allows same-sex marriage to be repealed.
Additionally, there have been considerable concerns over repealing the Roe v. Wade historic case allowing women to have a legal and safe abortion in the US. If this law, along with the one passed in 2015 by the Obama presidency, is repealed during Barrett’s reign at the SCOTUS, chaos may erupt in the US; riots worse than the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Even before joining the SCOTUS, Justice Barrett had made it known that she was hostile toward the Obamacare guarantee to birth control coverage (CNN, 2020). The 2012 Becket Fund letter was among those that the judge signed. The Becket Fund is a conservative legal group that has historically used religious arguments to push for the undermining of reproductive rights (Alliance for Justice, 2020). In the letter, the Fund attacked the requirement by ACA for health insurance plans to include contraceptive coverage and the accommodation process of the Obama administration for employers that have religious objections to coverage of contraceptives through which entities had the option of opting out by filling a form. This form was a paper that relieved objectors from the obligation to comply with the policy, yet it is an unlawful, religious exercise. This is against the opinion that the 8/9 federal appellate courts have, which views the issue as a permissible way of exempting objectors while ensuring that people access vital healthcare. In 2017, the Trump presidency enacted new religious exemptions that were part of the requirement. Earlier in 2020, the SCOTUS passed a ruling which asserted that the administration under the ACA had the authority to enact the said regulations. However, this rule only harmed people who could not access vital healthcare. Justice Barrett’s views on the accommodation process suggest that if allowed, she would support the standing of the harmful religious exemptions, thus undermining the principle of ‘do no harm.’ Additionally, in early September of 2020, in the Republican v. Pritzker, Justice Barrett was among those that allowed the 7th Circuit of Illinois to exempt from the emergency health order the religious services banning large gatherings to slow down the COVID-19 spread. As the world is struggling to battle the spread of COVID-19 and more so the US, the country needs a judge who values lives enough to prescribe social distancing rather than allow for religious gatherings that propagate the spread of the disease.
Lastly, Justice Barrett has consistently shown that she is least interested in rectifying the racial injustices in the country. As the Black Lives Matter protests spread across the country, she showed that she had propagated racial tension. This was seen in the case of Torry et al. versus the City of Chicago, where she ruled that the officers were reasonable in stopping a group of black men and harassing them despite there being no evidence that the men had committed any crime. In another incident that involved a police shooting of a mentally ill man, Justice Barrett sided with the police and asserted that the police had reasonable suspicion to warrant the shooting (The Guardian, 2020). Additionally, in the case of the US versus Wilson, the judge also sided with the decision for the police to use force in detaining a black man who had a ‘bulge in his pocket’ and who was also in an area known for its high rates of crime and that because Wilson fled, then it means Wilson was aware that he had violated the law. This attitude has been consistent with Barrett. As regards immigration, Barrett pointed out that she would defer to the absurd reasons that the executive has for denial of visas to lawful immigrants and would, in the process, not require the Trump administration to justify the decision the SCOTUS makes (The Guardian, 2020).
Arguments Pro Appointment Of Justice Barrett
Justice Barrett is a devout Christian and a mother of seven children. Two of these children were adopted from Haiti, while one has Downs Syndrome. Justice Barrett is beloved by her former students at the Notre Dame Law School and her community. She was voted three times as the best professor at her former law school. Justice Barrett is the first female judge, or any judge for that matter, to sit at the SCOTUS, and who has school-going children. This positions her as one candidate who will push for children’s rights in all spheres, including education, health, and social welfare. As a mother to a special needs child, Judge Barrett understands the concerns and issues facing some of the country’s most vulnerable people. Judge Barret is the model of an impartial and sympathetic judge as per the description by her colleagues at the Notre Dame Law School. Justice Barrett has asserted her qualifications as a judge of SCOTUS “If we are to protect our institutions, and protect the freedoms, and protect the rule of law that’s the basis for the society and the freedom that we all enjoy—if we want that for our children and our children’s children—then we need to participate in that work,” (Whitehouse, 2020).
Further, Justice Barrett has the potential to be more than another originalist voice or a conservative outcomes vote; instead, she is also an intellectual leader in the SCOTUS. She has excelled at every stage of her profession and has won accolades in her teaching career. Justice Barrett’s jurisprudence is a witness to itself as she has a long paper trail of judicial and academic writings that show a scholarly and thoughtful approach to both the prudential and substance aspects of judging.
Concluding Remarks
It is not a question of whether Judge Barrett is academically qualified; it goes without saying that she has a stellar academic record. Her professional career is also one that highlights her prowess as a judge and a teacher. However, I don’t believe that Justice Barrett will represent the views of all Americans. In Christian matters, she will most likely lean toward anti-abortion and anti-same-sex marriage. From a biblical standpoint, these are issues that were addressed in the Law of Moses, and God explicitly commanded that abortion and same-sex marriage were not to be tolerated. However, we live in a liberal country, and people have the freedom to do as they will, especially if it concerns their bodies. Rather than abolishing these laws, she should perhaps find out why people engage in same-sex marriage and abortions and, from her findings, push for programs that will mitigate the causative agents. For example, childhood sexual abuse almost always leads to homosexuality in adulthood. Programs that are strict and work at mitigating the incidences should be the focus of resolving the problem in the country. Getting stiffer laws on abuse perpetrators, such as the death penalty, should be implemented to deter the vice. Lastly, Justice Barrett’s appointment was clearly a political move, which in hindsight, was made to ensure that when Trump takes his election petition to the SCOTUS, he would have a sympathetic ear. This, in some way, discredits Justice Barrett’s appointment.
Works Cited
Alliance for Justice (2020). Judge Amy Coney Barrett A Nomination That Will Put Reproductive Rights At Risk. https://www.afj.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Barrett-Repro.pdf
CNN (2020, 10th October). What Amy Coney Barrett could mean for Obamacare. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/10/politics/affordable-care-act-amy-coney-barrett-obamacare/index.html
The Guardian (2020, 14th October). The problem with Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination isn’t timing. It’s her views. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/14/the-problem-with-amy-coney-barretts-nomination-isnt-timing-its-her-views
Washington Post (2006, 6th October). Amy Conet Barrett served as ‘handmaid’ in Christian Group People of Praise. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/amy-coney-barrett-people-of-praise/2020/10/06/5f497d8c-0781-11eb-859b-f9c27abe638d_story.html
Whitehouse.gov. (2020, 26th October). Senate Confirms Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court. https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/senate-confirms-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court/
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