Woman judge possible favorite for top court

The issue of abortion has been a contentious one for US Supreme Court nominees since the 1970s, and it is taking center stage again.

As US President Donald Trump prepares to announce his pick on Monday to replace Anthony Kennedy on the top court, his prospective nominees’ views on abortion are generating intense interest, in particular, the views of federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who believes that life begins at conception.

Trump promised during his campaign to appoint “pro-life justices” who would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal nationwide. The president has said he will not ask candidates their views on the subject.

Trump has said he will make his pick from a list compiled by conservative legal activists, helped by groups such as the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.

On Tuesday, Trump spoke to three more candidates and has interviewed a total of seven, The Associated Press reported.

Barrett, 46, a professor at Notre Dame Law School before Trump appointed her to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, has attracted the most attention on the subject of abortion. The longtime Indiana resident once served as a law clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

She is a New Orleans native who graduated Phi Beta Kappa at Rhodes College in Tennessee before earning her law degree at Notre Dame. A mother of seven children, two of whom are adopted, Barrett has spoken publicly about her belief that life begins at conception.

In a 2003 law journal article, she argued that courts could be more flexible in overturning prior “errors” in precedent. She noted that courts have struggled over when to keep “an erroneous decision” on the books, citing Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that upheld Roe.

Her Catholic beliefs were raised last September during her confirmation hearing in the Senate. “The dogma lives loudly within you,” Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said to Barrett during the hearing.

“It is never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge’s personal convictions, whether they arise from faith or anywhere else, on the law,” Barrett told the senators.

Barrett was approved for the appeals court last year with votes by all Republican senators and three Democrats: Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Tim Kaine of Virginia (Hillary Clinton’s 2016 running mate) and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Trump won Indiana handily in 2016, so Donnelly could be leery about the political impact of his vote on whomever Trump nominates ahead of November’s midterm elections. Barrett’s husband, Jesse, is a federal prosecutor in Indiana.

“The bottom line: Judge Barrett has given every indication that she will be an activist judge on the Court,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted on Monday. “If chosen as the nominee, she will be the deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and to strike down pre-existing conditions protections in the ACA (Affordable Care Act).

“There’s little that President Trump loves more than cementing his supporters’ adoration of him while making his foes squirm,” Frank Bruni wrote in an opinion for The New York Times on Tuesday. “Nominating Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court would do both . ... She’s the prompt for an all-out culture war. I can almost see the president licking his chops.”

Ramesh Ponnuru, in an opinion piece for Bloomberg, wrote that “opposing a woman will probably be more awkward for senators than opposing a man would be . ... If Roe v. Wade is ever overturned — as I certainly hope it will be, as it is an unjust decision with no plausible basis in the Constitution — it would be better if it were not done by only male justices, with every female justice in dissent.”

Judge Amy Coney Barrett