Amy Coney Barrett Confirmed As Supreme Court Justice

Amy Coney Barrett Confirmed As Supreme Court Justice

Amy Coney Barrett has today been confirmed as the next the Justice for Supreme Court of the United States.

Put forward for the position by President Donald Trump, the anti-LGBTQI Conservative Christian judge overcame unified Democratic opposition to her nomination and was voted in 52-48. This despite Barrett having sidestepped questions on presidential powers, abortion, climate change, voting rights, and other issues during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee two weeks ago.

Her nomination now creates a conservative 6-3 majority in the supreme court and comes just one week before America’s November 3 election. Irrespective of if Trump is re-elected, Barrett’s nomination will remain as a legacy of his tumultuous time as President. At just 48 years of age Barrett will be serve for decades to come, as this is a lifetime appointment.

Elizabeth Warren expressed concerns with the nomination of Barrett via Twitter on October 25 saying that a vote for Barrett would be “to turn back the clock on reproductive freedom, to endanger dreamers and immigrants, to let climate change rampage unchecked, to imperil efforts to address systemic racism, to place workers’ rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, gun violence prevention, [and] all artists.

 In 2015, when the Supreme Court handed it’s land mark ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges, paving the way for US State bans on same sex marriage to be overturned, Barrett made clear her stance on equal marriage rights, saying of the dissenting opinion “[Chief Justice Roberts, in his dissent] said, those who want same-sex marriage, you have every right to lobby in State legislatures to make that happen, but the dissent’s view was that it wasn’t for the court to decide… So, I think Obergefell, and what we’re talking about for the future of the court, it’s really a who decides question.”

In 2017 Barrett challenged the Obama administration’s conclusion that Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments which prohibits sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funding, requires that the gender identity of transgender students be respected.

Barrett has also on numerous occasions misgendered transgender students who have claimed Title IX protections, referring to such individuals as “someone who was physiologically a boy but identifying as a girl.”

Barrett’s nomination follows fierce debate from Democrats who argued that the nomination of the next Supreme Justice should have been left to the winner of next week’s election. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Republican party was “lighting its credibility on fire” by proceeding with the vote, after blocking Democratic President Barack Obama’s election-year nominee in 2016.

Schumer went on to add, “You may win this vote, and Amy Coney Barrett may become the next associate justice of the Supreme Court, but you will never get your credibility back.”

It is believed that Barrett will begin hearing on Supreme Court Cases within weeks if not days – including a case led by President Trump and Republican-led states, who are seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act on November 10. Perhaps more concerning is that President Trump has said that he expects the Supreme Court to decide the outcome of the upcoming presidential election and wants Judge Barrett to participate on any election-related cases that go before the justices.

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