Amy Coney Barrett’s inspiring story
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, if confirmed for the American Supreme Court, will strike a blow for diversity. She will be the only justice not to have gone to Harvard or Yale. The late Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were famous for being friends across their judicial divide, but they had a good basis for friendship — they both grew up in Brooklyn. Indeed, there were recently four justices from New York City alone, and another from Buffalo for a clear New York State majority. A sixth came from across the river in Jersey.
But the real demographic diversity that Judge Barrett will bring is as a mother of young children and teenagers. She will be the first ever mother on the court to have children in school.
The late Justice Ginsburg once said that she “had it all — just not all at the same time.” Barrett is nearly 40 years younger than Ginsburg, and her generation has taken a step farther down the trail that Ginsburg and her sisters blazed. Barrett does have it all, at the same time — not unlike some men have managed for a long time. Of course, neither Ginsburg nor Barrett are typical of most women — or of most men, for that matter. Typical is not the goal for high court justices.
Barrett and her husband, Jesse, have seven children and there is an inspiring story to tell in that family. In a dispiriting week in American politics, a measure of inspiration is welcome.
The young Barretts, inspired by other couples who had adopted children in difficult circumstances, adopted Vivian, a Haitian child in no small measure of distress, after they had two of their own.
“Vivian was 14- months- old when she came home, and she couldn’t make any sounds at that point, nor could she pull herself up to a standing position, because she was just so malnourished,” Barrett said. “At the time they told us they just weren’t sure whether she would speak. She had been so sick she hadn’t had a lot of practice making sounds and hadn’t been spoken to a lot. She had rickets so her legs were kind of bowed out.”
The Barretts were told that Vivian might never walk. They loved her back to health and now, at 16, she runs track and field. Judge Barrett calls Vivian “our miracle.”
Jesse and Amy decided to adopt another child from Haiti so that Vivian would have a brother or sister with a shared background. A young boy was selected, but the adoption got mired in paperwork. The Barretts gave up. In January 2010, a massive earthquake hit Haiti, and the aftershocks reached the Barrett family. Amy had discovered that she was expecting her fourth biological child on the same day that Jesse received a call that, due to the earthquake, red tape had been cut. If they wished they could go immediately to Haiti and receive an adoptive son, John Peter. It was “an intense three hours” to decide Barrett conceded. They accepted.
In 2010, I accompanied an Air Canada relief flight to Haiti to drop off aid supplies and return to Canada with Haitian orphans in a similar situation to John Peter Barrett. They had been approved for adoption by Canadian families, but the cases were not fully processed when the earthquake hit. The Canadian government announced an immediate airlift of the orphans who had already been approved for adop
tion. That flight from Haiti — Air Canada personnel caring for the little children, Haitian- Canadian doctors and nurses attending to them — remains one of the most moving experiences of my life. A new life awaited those anxious orphans in the hearts of couples awaiting them in Canada, like the Barretts did in Indiana.
The youngest Barrett child, Benjamin, has Down syndrome. Now eight, Barrett said of him at her previous confirmation hearing: “He has special needs. That presents unique challenges for all of us. But I think all you need to know about Benjamin’s place in the family is summed up by the fact the other children unreservedly identify him as their favourite sibling.”
Benjamin, of course, is blessed to be alive. His story is sadly more remarkable even than the two Barrett children from Haiti. In many countries, Canada and the United States among them, the medical profession routinely offers and even encourages the abortion of Down syndrome children diagnosed in utero, as Benjamin was. Less than 20 per cent of such children live. Two years back, Iceland boasted that it had no Down births. Not, it should be noted, no Down children. Just no births.
Enthusiasm for eugenic abortion, racial and genetic, has a long history. Planned Parenthood, on racial grounds, just disavowed its founder, Margaret Sanger, who thought abortion would be good to keep down the number of Black children. That view today still prevails regarding special-needs children. There are elements of the abortion industry that are terrified at what a future Justice Barrett might think of those arguments.
It’s a new, diverse experience that will be welcome on the court.
first ever mother on the court to have children in school.
In l ast week’s column about both Republicans and Democrats not playing nicely about court appointments, I should have added the case of a nomination made by George H.W. Bush to the D.C. Court of Appeals in 1992. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Joe Biden, refused to give the nominee a hearing, let alone a confirmation vote. In 2001, George W. Bush nominated the same man again. The Senate Democrats refused again a hearing or a confirmation vote, a practice also extended to other Bush nominees. In 2003, the Republicans took control of the Senate and Bush nominated him for a third time. This time he was confirmed. Might he remember all this and might it still be relevant? Yes and yes. He is Chief Justice John Roberts.