WASHINGTON (US) – President Donald Trump is planning to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The federal appeals court judge has held on to conservative legal stands on key issues during three years on the bench.
The president intends to nominate Barrett, who is a favourite of religious conservatives, to a lifetime position in the Supreme Court as the successor of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Trump appointed Barrett, 48, to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in 2017. She has proved to be a conservative by voting in favour of the president’s immigration policies and has demonstrated support for wider gun rights. She is also the architect of a ruling which makes it easier for college students accused of sexual assaults on campus to sue their institutions.
Abortion rights activists fear she might vote as a justice to scuttle the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalising abortion across the country.
On two occasions, Barrett voiced opposition to rulings that struck down abortion-related curbs supported by Republicans. One was in 2018 requiring the foetus to be buried or cremated after abortion. The other was in 2019 which involved parental notification.
In February last year, she joined a ruling that upheld a Chicago measure which placed curbs on the gathering of anti-abortion activists outside abortion clinics.
Senator Dianne Feinstein told Barrett during her 2017 confirmation hearing that “The dogma lives loudly within you” to which she replied that her faith would not affect her decisions as a judge.