History-making endorsement
Parkland grad, 1st blind clerk at high court, testifies for former professor Amy Coney Barrett
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett mentored a Parkland High School graduate through law school and encouraged her to pursue the “seemingly impossible dream” of becoming the first blind law clerk at the high court.
Laura Wolk, a 2005 Parkland graduate, testified at Barrett’s confirmation hearing Thursday afternoon in the U.S. Senate. In prepared testimony, Wolk spoke about Barrett’s kindness, compassion and honesty.
Struck by retinal cancer as an infant, Wolk is totally blind and has relied on adaptive technology since she was a student at Kratzer Elementary School. She now practices law in Washington and was a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas during the Supreme Court’s 2019 term.
As a first-year law school student at Notre Dame University, Wolk found herself struggling to keep up when promised accommodations were not provided and her own computer started to fail. She approached Barrett, one of her professors, to ask for help navigating the university’s bureaucracy, Wolk said.
Accustomed to having to advocate for herself, Wolk didn’t expect much, but Barrett surprised her, Wolk said.
“She sat silently, listening with deep attention as I explained my situation. She exuded calm and compassion, giving methe freedom to let down my guard and come apart,” Wolk said.
To Barrett, Wolk poured out her worries about failing classes and having to choose between completing her assignments and getting to the grocery store by herself. Solving those problems was keeping her from enjoying her law school experience.
“When I finished, Judge Barrett leaned forward and looked at me intently. ‘Laura,’ she said, with the same measured conviction that we have seen displayed throughout her entire nomination process, ‘this is no longer your problem. It’s my problem,’” Wolk said.
Wolk described Barrett to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee as a woman of unassailable integrity.
“She will serve this country with distinction not only because of her intellectual prowess, but also because of her compassionate heart and her years of practice treating others as equals deserving of complete respect,” Wolk said.
Wolk graduated from Swarthmore College in 2009 and worked in social services for about three years until she started law school in 2013. In addition to the Supreme Court, she served as a clerk for Judge Thomas I. Hardiman on the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Janice Rogers Brown on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
“I’m proud of Laura as a successful blind adult from the perspective of a parent who raised her with all the hope that she would be successful among her sighted peers,” said her father, Michael Wolk.
He said the Parkland School District and Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit were exemplary in providing support for his
daughter. He also credits the National Federation of the Blind with giving her the education she needed to become successful.
In the mid-1990s, Michael Wolk founded Pennsylvania Parents of the Blind to provide the same support for families with visually impaired children across the state. The organization advocated that blind children should be on the same level as sighted peers of the same age. Laura Wolk did all of the same things and had the same opportunities as her twin sister, Sarah, who is sighted, Michael Wolk said.
“That’s what I tried to impart to other parents of blind children,” he said.
Laura Wolk’s encounter with Barrett in her first semester of law school was not the end of the professor’s generosity. Barrett offered advice throughout Wolk’s law school career and gave her confidence to persevere against discrimination and self-doubt, Wolk said.
“This woman with so many commitments and pressures on her time nevertheless freely volunteered herself to minister to my emotional needs and offered practical and creative solutions to the very real accessibility obstacles I was facing,” Wolk said of Barrett.
Thursday was the fourth and final day of Barrett’s confirmation hearing. She is a judge on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and was nominated by President Donald Trump to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the nomination next week. After that, it will go to the full Senate.