Where Amy Coney Barrett Stands On Reproductive Rights, Health Care
President Donald Trump's nominee for the high court has been described as a devotee of the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she worked as a law clerk. On the subject of abortion, Scalia wrote that the Constitution has nothing to say about it and that states should decide the question for themselves. There is no reason to believe Barrett disagrees.
Modern Healthcare:
Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett's Healthcare Stances
President Donald Trump on Saturday nominated to the Supreme Court Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who in past writings criticized a decision that upheld tenets of the Affordable Care Act. Trump nominated Barrett to fill a vacancy created by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a move that could shift the ideological balance of the court for years. Barrett's views on the ACA could be important if the Senate confirms her before the Supreme Court hears California v. Texas a week after Election Day. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he wants to hold a vote on Barrett's confirmation before the end of 2020. (Cohrs, 9/26)
The New York Times:
What To Know About Amy Coney Barrett's Views
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, has compiled an almost uniformly conservative voting record in cases touching on abortion, gun rights, discrimination and immigration. If she is confirmed, she would move the court slightly but firmly to the right, making compromise less likely and putting at risk the right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade. Judge 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. (Liptak, 9/26)
The Washington Post:
Amy Coney Barrett, Supreme Court Nominee, Spoke At Program Founded To Inspire A ‘Distinctly Christian Worldview In Every Area Of Law’
[Amy Coney Barrett's] role as a speaker at a training program for Christian law school students drew scrutiny three years ago when Trump nominated her to be a federal appellate judge. It may do so again now — as part of broader questioning about how she would balance faith and law — as she seeks confirmation to the nation’s high court. Barrett was a paid speaker five times, starting in 2011, at the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, a summer program established to inspire a “distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law,” tax filings show. It was founded to show students “how God can use them as judges, law professors and practicing attorneys to help keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel in America.” (Brown and Swaine, 9/27)
NBC News:
What Trump Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett Means For Roe V. Wade
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who was officially announced as President Donald Trump's next Supreme Court nominee on Saturday, has long topped the president's Supreme Court shortlist. That’s no coincidence. Conservatives fully expect Barrett to cast a vote to reverse Roe v. Wade, the court’s landmark decision recognizing a right to choose abortion. At the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Barrett joined a dissent suggesting that states could pass so-called reasons bans, outlawing abortion for reasons of race, sex or disability selection. Before she was on the bench, Barrett, then a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, belonged to the university’s Faculty for Life group and signed a letter affirming the “value of human life from conception to natural death.” (Ziegler, 9/27)
CBS News:
What We Know About Amy Coney Barrett's Judicial Abortion Record
Four years ago on the campaign trail, then-candidate Donald Trump pledged that if he were elected, only "pro-life" justices would get his nomination for a seat on the Supreme Court. As president, it's a promise he's delivered on twice already, and on Saturday, did so once more. Amy Coney Barrett, Mr. Trump's Supreme Court nomination, meets the president's unprecedented anti-abortion rights litmus test. The federal judge has referred to abortion as "always immoral" and offers something a former top candidate, Barbara Lagoa, doesn't: A clear anti-abortion rights judicial record. During her three years on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, she has already ruled on two abortion-related cases, both times favoring restrictions on access to abortion. (Smith, 9/26)
Vox:
Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett On Abortion, Roe V. Wade, And Setting The Precedent For Reproductive Rights
President Trump has repeatedly promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established the right to an abortion in America. Now that he has chosen Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, he has moved one step closer to that goal. Barrett, a judge on the Seventh US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, has attracted praise from social conservatives for her religious faith as well as her strict interpretation of the Constitution. On the federal bench, she’s issued conservative decisions in cases involving the Second Amendment and immigration, among others. But her views on abortion are likely to get particular attention during her confirmation process, given the president’s promise on Roe and the political importance of the issue in an election year. (North, 9/26)
AP:
On Guns, Abortion, High Court Could Become More Conservative
If Congress confirms President Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court would become more conservative, and also perhaps more ready to tackle certain hot-button issues like abortion and guns. Chief Justice John Roberts would also likely become less able to steer the outcome in divisive cases. Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18 at 87, was the leader of the liberal wing of the court, which had been split 5-4 between conservatives and liberals. Roberts had, on occasion, sided with the liberals. But if Trump fills Ginsburg’s seat, there will be six conservative justices, three of them appointed by him. (Gresko, 9/27)
Politico:
How Amy Coney Barrett Would Reshape The Court — And The Country
If confirmed, Judge Amy Coney Barrett will consolidate the conservative majority and shift the balance of power on the court decidedly to the right. She has called abortion “immoral” and written that judges are not always bound by precedent. And, consistent with the anti-abortion movement’s current strategy, she has expressed openness to hollowing out Roe v. Wade through state regulations. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made a mark as a strong supporter of reproductive freedom; she consistently voted against state encroachments on Roe v. Wade. A critic of Chief Justice John Roberts’ role in the blockbuster case that upheld the Affordable Care Act in 2012, Judge Barrett is likely to give the law’s opponents a sympathetic hearing in the case pending before the court. By contrast, Justice Ginsburg, a strong voice and critical vote in support of the ACA, would almost certainly have again sustained the federal law. On the question of gun rights, Ginsburg sustained regulations, whereas Barrett has questioned the constitutionality of a categorical ban on gun ownership by felons. (9/26)
