RBG’s Passing and Amy Coney Barrett’s Nomination

RBG passed away less than two weeks ago as I write this article. This woman was an icon and someone whom I aspire to have even one drop of the type of impact she had. I needed to mourn a hero who I had never met. She deserved all of the honors she received in life and in death. But she is now buried and her successor has been nominated by President Trump.

While I would like to argue that the Senate is filled with a bunch of hypocrites, which they are, that isn’t the matter at hand. President Trump has nominated a successor to RBG’s seat on the Supreme Court. If we take precedent into consideration, I don’t think she will be confirmed before the election; there is plenty of time for this woman to be confirmed in the interim time between the election and the inauguration.

Who is Amy Coney Barrett? Barrett is a 48-year-old lawyer who currently serves as a circuit court judge on the Seventh District court of appeals. She was nominated in May 2017 by President Trump and confirmed in October 2017. She’s from New Orleans and received her law degree from Norte Dame.

Why are democrats and women’s groups upset by Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination? Is it because there are 36 days until Election Day, as I write this article? Yes. Is it because Merrick Garland was refused a hearing from the Senate Judiciary Committee or a vote on the Senate floor even though Justice Scalia died more than six months before the 2016 election? Yes. Is it because Barrett has said in a 2013 Texas Law Review article that Roe v. Wade isn’t a “superprecedent” and could be overturned? Yes.

Amy Coney Barrett is a religious conservative Catholic who has not made her beliefs a secret. She hasn’t been on the Court of Appeals very long, in the grand scheme of being a judge, but her decisions have shown her conservatism and her slant towards originalism. I am not surprised by the fears that women’s groups have for Roe v. Wade or others for the Affordable Care Act. She openly criticized Chief Justice Roberts in his decision for National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius.

But at the end of the day, we have a Republican majority in the Senate, and even if every single seat up for election goes to the Democratic Party, there is still the two months between the election and when the new Senate takes its seat. I hope that the Democratic Senators can slow this nomination down, but I truly believe that there is very little that can be done about his nomination, and that is why everyone is focusing on the president’s taxes (or lack thereof).