Constitutional Hardliner Amy Coney Barrett Likely Next Trump Pick

Originally posted on September 24, 2018.

Amy Coney Barrett could, and probably should, be Donald Trump’s next nominee to the Supreme Court, if a vacancy happens to arise. Here’s a little about Coney Barrett from Steve Cortes writing at RealClearPolitics.com:

1. BIOGRAPHY — Barrett’s story almost seems too incredible to believe. Her professional credentials include clerking for the Supreme Court, working for a prestigious private law firm, and a 15-year tenure as a respected scholar teaching at the University of Notre Dame Law School.  While amassing this superb resume, she also cares for her brood of seven children.  It would be almost comical to watch liberals try to assail such a smart, likable, and impressive professional and personal superwoman.  In both optics and substance, Barrett is the Democrats’ worst nightmare.
2. RECORD — Barrett’s professional body of work reveals a stellar legal mind wedded to the principles of originalism and preservation of the textual integrity of our Constitution. Her record strongly suggests she will resist the trend of recent decades toward a court that legislates from the bench and instead will return our country to a badly needed federalism through judicial restraint.  For example, regarding the legal doctrine of stare decisis, she wrote that in overturning precedent “a new majority cannot simply impose its vision only with votes” but “must defend its approach to the Constitution.”  Eminent Princeton scholar Robert George in a tweet called Judge Barrett “a super smart female justice who’s guided by the constitutional text, its logic, structure, and original public meaning.”
3. POLITICS — President’s Trump’s recent momentum – from court victories to rising poll numbers to a roaring economy – is undeniable. Now is the time to press forward with an unorthodox and, perhaps, controversial pick for the court.  Barrett was confirmed for the federal bench just nine months ago with approval from every Republican (even the Trump-hating ones) and several Democratic senators from very pro-Trump states such as Indiana’s Joe Donnelly and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who will face voters this November in tough races.  Would they dare to reverse themselves on such an impressive female candidate in a mere matter of months?
4. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY — Barrett’s 2017 confirmation hearing revealed some of the worst instincts of the Democratic Party and its visceral disdain for Americans who subscribe to traditional values and faiths. Because Barrett and her family take their Catholicism seriously, Sen. Diane Feinstein dared to tell her “the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s a concern.”  Similar sentiments were voiced by the ostensibly Catholic Sen. Dick Durbin.  Such questions represent, by the way, an unconstitutional religious litmus test.  But even more offensively, high-ranking public servants like Feinstein and Durbin –whose faiths were once subject to discrimination in American public life – should be ashamed of such wanton prejudice.  Thankfully, Barrett persevered in those hearings and responded with logic and poise, proving she can handle the inevitable onslaught the left will unleash should she be nominated.

Read more here.

A closer look at Judge Amy Coney Barrett