Tag: Amy Coney Barrett

Barrett Wouldn’t Say That Voter Intimidation Is a Federal Crime

On the second day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Judge Amy Coney Barrett refused to answer Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) questions when asked whether federal law prohibits voter intimidation at the polls.

In recent months, voter intimidation and voter suppression have been hot-button issues, with Donald Trump during the first presidential debate going so far as to openly solicit his supporters to commit voter intimidation.

“Go to the polls and watch very carefully,” Trump said, before spiraling into frequently debunked conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania. Continue reading.

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has seven kids. And don’t you dare forget it.

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The opening day of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court was kid-friendly. It was child-obsessed. It was a little over five hours of children as talking points and visual aids and proof of unwavering conservative values. It’s hard to recall a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee that was so focused on the well-being, the deportment and the birth story of our youngest citizens.

Rare was the Republican on the committee who was able to deliver an opening statement without referring to the seven children in the Barrett family. This feat of parenting seemed to leave them gobsmacked with admiration and utterly mystified as to how a two-parent household with significant financial resources was capable of wrangling such a large brood without the missus showing up with oatmeal on her clothes. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) couldn’t contain himself from acknowledging that not only did Barrett have a big family of her own, but she also was the product of one, just like him. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was impressed by her kids’ good behavior and said he was hoping for parenting tips.

The many references to Barrett’s children were a not-so-subtle pronouncement that her prolific motherhood was especially good and admirable and a sign that she was not shirking her womanly duty while she was unleashing her ambition. Barrett had it all — on terms that were acceptable to social conservatives. Continue reading.

Democrats warn of ObamaCare threat from Barrett, Trump

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Democrats on Monday painted Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s high court nominee, as an existential threat to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), allowing them to go on offense in the fight over the Supreme Court and the fast-approaching election. 

Democrats view health care as a politically potent issue that resonates with voters and galvanizes their base with only 22 days left to go until Nov. 3, when they are hoping to win back both the White House and the Senate majority.

They are unlikely to be able to stop Republicans from placing Barrett on the court but plan to use the hearings to try to build political pressure on vulnerable GOP incumbents and mobilize voters in the final stretch of the election.  Continue reading.

Democrats seek to tie Barrett to Trump on Affordable Care Act as confirmation hearings begin

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Senate Democrats are seeking to tie Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett to President Trump’s push to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the first day of her confirmation hearings in an effort to dispel any doubt how she will rule on health care if placed on the court.

In interviews Monday morning and their opening statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats homed in on health care, and specifically former President Obama’s signature health care law, an issue they view as favorable to their side and one on which they previewed a heavy focus.

The challenge Democrats face is that while they claim Barrett will overturn ObamaCare, the judge has never explicitly said she would do so, though she has dropped big hints about how she’s likely to rule. Continue reading.

Amy Coney Barrett served as a ‘handmaid’ in Christian group People of Praise

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While Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has faced questions about how her Catholic faith might influence her jurisprudence, she has not spoken publicly about her involvement in People of Praise, a small Christian group founded in the 1970s and based in South Bend, Ind.

Barrett, a federal appellate judge, has disclosed serving on the board of a network of private Christian schools affiliated with the group. The organization, however, has declined to confirm that she is a member. In recent years, it removed from its website editions of a People of Praise magazine — first those that included her name and photograph and then all archives of the magazine itself.

Barrett has had an active role in the organization, as have her parents, according to documents and interviews that help fill out a picture of her involvement with a group that keeps its teachings and gatherings private. Continue reading.

Trump Court Nominee Would Jail Doctors Who Provide Reproductive Services To Women

It’s well known that Amy Coney Barrett, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, is anti-abortion. However, her views on other reproductive health issues, including fertilization and embryos, go far beyond merely opposing abortion. Indeed, she once signed onto a full-page ad that called for prosecuting doctors not just for performing abortions, but for discarding unused or frozen embryos. 

During her 2017 confirmation hearings for her seat on the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Barrett gave the same type of vague, noncommittal answer that has become the hallmark of conservative judicial nominees: “All nominees are united in their belief that what they think about a precedent should not bear on how they decide cases.”

But her ostensible respect for precedent is undercut by her writing before becoming a judge.  Continue reading.

Alumni at Barrett’s undergrad school sign letter of concern

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett graduated in 1994 with honors from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. But more than 1,500 alumni of the small liberal arts school have made it known they are not proud of their ties to the conservative lawyer and judge.

Barrett graduated magna cum laude with an undergraduate degree in English. She was a member of the Honor Council and named to the Student Hall of Fame. After her next stop at Notre Dame’s law school, Barrett built a career of “professional distinction and achievement,” said Rhodes president Marjorie Hass, in a statement issued after President Donald Trump nominated Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The statement was dated Sept. 22. Soon after, Rhodes alumni Rob Marus and Katherine Morgan Breslin wrote a letter criticizing Barrett’s stances on abortion law, the LBGTQ community and the Affordable Care Act. Signed by 1,513 alumni and posted online, the letter says the alumni are “firmly and passionately opposed to her nomination,” declaring Barrett fails to represent their views and values. Continue reading.

Barrett tied to faith group ex-members say subjugates women

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court has close ties to a charismatic Christian religious group that holds men are divinely ordained as the “head” of the family and faith. Former members of the group, called People of Praise, say it teaches that wives must submit to the will of their husbands.

Federal appeals judge Amy Coney Barrett has not commented publicly about her own or her family’s involvement, and a People of Praise spokesman declined to say whether she and her husband are current members.

But Barrett, 48, grew up in New Orleans in a family deeply connected to the organization and as recently as 2017 she served as a trustee at the People of Praise-affiliated Trinity Schools Inc., according to the nonprofit organization’s tax records and other documents reviewed by The Associated Press. Only members of the group serve on the schools’ board, according to the system’s president. Continue reading.

Barrett’s Record: A Conservative Who Would Push the Supreme Court to the Right

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As an appeals court judge, Judge Barrett has issued opinions that have reflected those of her mentor, Justice Antonin Scalia, but with few of his occasional liberal rulings.

WASHINGTON — 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.

But while Justice Scalia’s methods occasionally drove him to liberal results, notably in cases on flag burning and the role of juries in criminal cases, Judge Barrett could be a different sort of justice. Continue reading.