Oct 31, 2020
Thinking Citizen Blog — Amy Coney Barrett Succeeds Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Thinking Citizen Blog — Saturday is Justice, Freedom, Law, and Values Day
Today’s Topic — Amy Coney Barrett succeeds Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Amy Coney Barrett is the third Trump appointee to the Supreme Court — after Neil McNeil Gorsuch (who began serving in April 2017) and Brett Kavanaugh (whose tenure began on October 2018). Her nomination was approved by a vote of 52–48. This was the first time in 151 years that a nominee did not get one vote from the opposing party. But she was not without vocal supporters among liberal law professors. Most notably, Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman. Today, a few excerpts from Feldman’s defense of Barrett as well as both quotes from Barrett herself and some biographical data. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
LIBERAL HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR NOAH FELDMAN DEFENDS BARRETT
1. “I disagree with much of her judicial philosophy and expect to disagree with many, maybe even most of her future votes and opinions. Yet despite this disagreement, I know her to be a brilliant and conscientious lawyer who will analyze and decide cases in good faith, applying the jurisprudential principles to which she is committed. Those are the basic criteria for being a good justice. Barrett meets and exceeds them”
2. “I got to know Barrett more than 20 years ago when we clerked at the Supreme Court during the 1998–99 term. Of the thirty-some clerks that year, all of whom had graduated at the top of their law school classes and done prestigious appellate clerkships before coming to work at the court, Barrett stood out. Measured subjectively and unscientifically by pure legal acumen, she was one of the two strongest lawyers. The other was Jenny Martinez, now dean of the Stanford Law School.”
3. “When assigned to work on an extremely complex, difficult case, especially one involving a hard-to-comprehend statutory scheme, I would first go to Barrett to explain it to me. Then I would go to Martinez to tell me what I should think about it.”
NB: “To add to her merits, Barrett is a sincere, lovely person. I never heard her utter a word that wasn’t thoughtful and kind — including in the heat of real disagreement about important subjects. She will be an ideal colleague. I don’t really believe in “judicial temperament,” because some of the greatest justices were irascible, difficult and mercurial. But if you do believe in an ideal judicial temperament of calm and decorum, rest assured that Barrett has it.”
AMY CONEY BARRETT QUOTES
1. “A judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policymakers, and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they may hold.”
2. “Originalism is characterized by a commitment to two core principles. First, the meaning of the constitutional text is fixed at the time of its ratification. Second, the historical meaning of the text ‘has legal significance and is authoritative in most circumstances.’
3. “The law is comprised of words — and textualists emphasize that words mean what they say, not what a judge thinks that they ought to say.”
BIOGRAPHICAL FACTS
1. A practicing Roman Catholic with traditional Catholic beliefs on abortion.
2. Mother of seven children. Two adopted from Haiti. One with Downs Syndrome.
3. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana into a devout family (her father was a Catholic deacon), a graduate of Rhodes College (a liberal arts college in Memphis Tennessee), and the Notre Dame Law School (#1 in her class).
FINAL NOTE: what will the future hold?
The Supreme Court now has 6 members appointed by Republican presidents and 3 appointed by Democrats. But Republican appointees have a long history of disappointing conservatives — especially on the abortion issue. Remember particularly the Casey decision (1992) in which three Republican-appointed justices (Souter, Kennedy, and O’Connor) refused to overrule Roe. See the the third link for quantitative data on the history of justices moving leftward as they age.
Amy Coney Barrett Deserves to Be on the Supreme Court
Supreme Court Justices Get More Liberal As They Get Older
How Amy Coney Barrett Could Change The Supreme Court
Barrett’s Record: A Conservative Who Would Push the Supreme Court to the Right
It’s Now the Barrett Court | City Journal
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PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to justice, freedom, the law or basic values. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to justice, freedom, the law, or basic values. Or just some random justice-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart.
