Following a unanimous vote by the Judiciary
Committee last week, the Senate just confirmed Seventh Circuit Court
of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett to become the 115th Associate
Justice on the United States Supreme Court.
“Having confirmed her to the Circuit Court in 2017 with bipartisan
support, the Senate has already undertaken a thorough and rigorous
review of her record,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said after President
Trump made the nomination last month.
Throughout Justice Barrett’s career, she has faithfully upheld our
U.S. Constitution as written. The American Bar Association gave
Barrett its highest rating, and she has an impressive track record
across the legal profession—as a judge, professor, and litigator.
Most important, she will bring a valuable new perspective to our
High Court:
*Justice Barrett is the first mother of school-aged children to
become a Supreme Court Justice. She is also only the fifth woman
ever to serve.
*As the mother of a child with special needs, she understands the
issues and concerns confronting our nation’s most vulnerable people.
&Justice Barrett will be the only current justice to have a law
degree from a school other than Harvard or Yale. She graduated at
the top of her class from Notre Dame Law School in Indiana.
Justice Barrett has made her philosophy clear: She will not
legislate from the bench. “Courts have a vital responsibility to the
rule of law, which is critical to a free society, but courts are not
designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public
life,” she said during her confirmation hearings.
“The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made
by the political branches, elected by and accountable to the
people,” she added.
One letter—written by Justice Barrett’s former law clerks—calls her
approach principled and independent-minded. “Judge Barrett taught us
that a good judge will not always like the results she reaches; a
good judge goes wherever the law leads,” it reads.
Justice Barrett is the very model of a sympathetic yet impartial
judge, according to her colleagues at Notre Dame Law School. She is
exactly the type of person whom the American people deserve to have
sitting on their Supreme Court.
“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,”
Justice Barrett said.
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