Amy Coney Barrett has been nominated by President Donald Trump to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
Throughout Barrett’s career, she has studied law at the University of Notre Dame, eventually became a professor there and ended up being appointed as a federal appeals court judge. Regardless of her impressive experiences, she is a dangerous choice for women and other marginalized groups.
Barrett is a member of a religious group that is allegedly against abortion, LGBTQA+ rights and marriage equality. Compared to Ginsburg, who was an open feminist and supporter of the LGBTQA+ community, Barrett has incredibly conservatives views.
She also supports a “strict” or “original” interpretation of the constitution. This means that rather than believing the constitution should be interpreted by the change and progression of time, it should be read as it was written, for the time it was written in. This is problematic because as times change people change, and with that, policies should change as well. There should be new/improved regulations based on these advancements, especially with the rapid increase in technological advances.
Due to this, she believes that women do have a constitutional right to abortion; however, she believes that states also have the right to heavily regulate these abortions. Yet, when it comes to gun control, even dangerous felons do not deserve their guns taken away because nothing in the constitution specifies that. Interesting how certain things should be regulated when others should not regardless of what the constitution says. It seems as though she picks and chooses when she should utilize strict interpretation.
Besides this, Barrett’s incredibly “right” ideals will cause the Supreme Court to lean right as well, which can be a dangerous game for marginalized people. This could mean policies to abolish abortion or marriage equality can be deemed as constitutional.
Overall, the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a tragedy, and she will be greatly missed. As a woman, I know I am not comfortable with the idea of Amy Coney Barrett being appointed. I believe we should continue making noise to see that Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s hope of a judge being appointed after the election comes true.