Donald Trump’s selection of Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court is the latest development in the GOP’s transparent scramble to tilt the nation’s highest court further to the right.
Barrett, 48, will form a 6-3 conservative majority, potentially impacting a generation of rulings on issues ranging from Obamacare to immigration to abortion.
“It solidifies the conservative 6-3 majority,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor and expert on federal judicial selection at the University of Richmond Law School. “Chief Justice [John] Roberts will not be as central as he was last term. I do not see much hope for progressives in the short term.”
“Barring structural changes to the court,” he added, “the conservative majority could last for decades, or at least a decade.”
An ABC/Washington Post poll released Friday showed the majority of Americans believe the Senate should not confirm a new justice until after the election, when the winner of the presidential race is clear.
Only 38 percent of Americans surveyed said the confirmation should happen before Nov. 3.
But Republicans have opted to seize on a rare opportunity to seat another conservative jurist who could serve for decades — even if it means potentially suffering through political backlash or losing their thin Senate majority.
Barrett’s judicial opinions, based on a substantial sample of the hundreds of cases that she has considered in her three years on the federal appeals court in Chicago, are marked by care, clarity and a commitment to the interpretive methods used by Justice Antonin Scalia, the giant of conservative jurisprudence for whom she worked as a law clerk from 1998 to 1999.
Religious conservatives are elated with Barrett, a devout Catholic.
Barrett has stated that “life begins at conception,” according to a 2013 Notre Dame Magazine article.
She also said that justices should not be strictly bound by Supreme Court precedents, a deference known as stare decisis, leaving open the possibility that she could vote to overturn Roe v. Wade if seated on the court.
Evangelical and other anti-abortion activists have been pushing for her nomination. Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the anti-abortion rights group Susan B. Anthony List, spoke with Trump earlier this week to advocate for Barrett.
She has also voiced conservative views on a number of other issues, from guns to the Affordable Care Act to gay rights.
“It’s no surprise Trump would want to nominate Amy Coney Barrett, a judge with a track record of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric,” wrote the Human Rights Campaign. “She’s argued against trans rights, marriage equality and reproductive rights — and she shouldn’t be on the Supreme Court.”
Her reported membership in a controversial Christian group has also raised eyebrows for its teachings on family relationships.
She’s a member of the People of Praise, a small Catholic group that teaches husbands are the heads of the family.
During her 2017 confirmation hearings for a seat on the Chicago-based 7th Circuit, Barrett testifed that while she was a devout Catholic, those views wouldn’t bleed into her decisions on the bench.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, famously told Barrett, ‘The dogma lives loudly within you.’
People of Praise, the group to which Barrett belongs, emerged out of the revivalist movement of the 1960s, which blended Catholicism and Protestant Pentecostalism.
Founded in South Bend, Indiana, in 1971 and with 1,700 members, the group describes itself as a community that “support[s] each other financially and materially and spiritually”.
William Cash, chairman of the Catholic Herald, said members of People of Praise were on “the conservative side of the church and are unlikely to be the sort of progressives who are fanatical about Pope Francis”.
“There’s nothing particularly extreme about People of Praise – other than it is very hierarchical and women are not given senior positions,” he said.
Former members of People of Praise and religious scholars have described an organization that appears to dominate some members’ everyday lives, in which so-called “heads”, or spiritual advisers, oversee major decisions. Married women count their husbands as their “heads” and members are expected to tithe 5% of their income to the organization.
According to a former member, Adrian Reimers, “all one’s decisions and dealings become the concern of one’s ‘head’, and in turn potentially become known to the leadership”.
Heidi Schlumpf, a national correspondent for National Catholic Reporter, called the group’s level of secrecy “concerning”.
In 2012, as a professor at Notre Dame, Barrett signed a letter attacking a provision of the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare reform known as Obamacare, that forced insurance companies to offer coverage for contraception, a facet of the law later modified for religious institutions.
Republican attempts to bring down the ACA have repeatedly fallen short.
If Barrett is confirmed before the November election, one of her first cases shortly after it could determine its fate.
Joe Biden has warned Barrett would get rid of Obamacare, repeating once again his demand that a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg not be appointed until after the election.
Biden said today that Barrett is known to be against Obamacare.
‘[Barrett] has a written track record of disagreeing with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding the Affordable Care Act,’ he said in a statement posted on his website.
He pointed out that Trump ‘has been trying to throw out the Affordable Care Act for four years’ and that Republicans have been trying to end it for a decade.
Twice, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law as constitutional, he said.
But even now, in the midst of a global health pandemic, the Trump Administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the entire law, including its protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Biden said that Barrett was a critic of a 2012 decision from the Supreme Court to uphold Obamacare.
He added: ‘The United States Constitution was designed to give the voters one chance to have their voice heard on who serves on the Court. That moment is now and their voice should be heard.
‘The Senate should not act on this vacancy until after the American people select their next president and the next Congress.’
Republicans say her confirmation hearings will start Oct. 12.