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Who is Amy Coney Barrett? Ruth Bader Ginsberg's SCOTUS seat may go to Federalist Society-approved appeals judge

Barrett was on president Trump’s potential nominee list after her 2017 confirmation hearing for a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

While everyone was in the process coming to terms with the news of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing away, there was already chatter about who can be her replacement. Senior editorial producer of ABC News John Santucci tweeted, “Multiple sources close to President Trump with direct knowledge tell ABC News he is expected put forth a nominee to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat in the coming days via me & @KFaulders.”

It was quote-tweeted by Katherine Faulders, an investigative reporter covering the White House and Capitol Hill for ABC News, who tweeted, “The sources describe the list of potential nominees as very short and including at least one woman. Two sources tell ABC News Judge Amy Coney Barrett is seen as a leading contender. Reporting w/ @Santucci.” Sources also told ABC News that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been in touch with members of the Republican group after news of Ginsburg’s passing was announced.

Who is Amy Coney Barrett?

As per USA Today, 48-year-old Barrett is a favorite among religious conservatives. She was on President Trump’s potential nominee list after her 2017 confirmation hearing for a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. At that time, Democrats cited her deep Catholic faith, not as an advantage but an obstacle. She was confirmed, 55-43, as reported by USA Today.

During that hearing, as stated by the report, she said, “If you're asking whether I take my faith seriously and I'm a faithful Catholic, I am. Although I would stress that my personal church affiliation or my religious belief would not bear in the discharge of my duties as a judge."

A 2018 LA Times report state that her belief that life begins at conception is the basis for both her supporters and critics to believe she would be crucial to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. Some Republican strategists see it as a smart move for Trump to appoint a conservative woman to the Supreme Court if battles over abortion and religion come up, as per the report.

She is a graduate from Notre Dame University Law School and has clerked for the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. As stated in USA Today, in a 2013 Texas Law Review article exploring when the Supreme Court should overturn past decisions, Barrett wrote that she agrees “with those who say that a justice’s duty is to the Constitution and that it is thus more legitimate for her to enforce her best understanding of the Constitution rather than a precedent she thinks clearly in conflict with it.”

Barrett is married to Jesse M. Barrett, a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana. The couple has seven children.

According to SCOTUS blog, Barrett was also a member of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, from 2005 to 2006 and then again from 2014 to 2017. Answering  Democratic senators during her 7th Circuit confirmation process, she had reasoned her rejoining the group as “the opportunity to speak to groups of interested, engaged students on topics of mutual interest,” but she added that she had never attended the group’s national convention. The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, most frequently called the Federalist Society, is an organization of conservatives and libertarians that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the United States Constitution. It is considered to be one of the nation's most influential legal organizations.
 
People on social media also started discussing the news about the possible replacement. One user said, “Trump, McConnell needs to move swiftly in picking a new Supreme Court Justice, hopefully, Amy Coney Barrett. This is not the time for GOP infighting or nitpicking. GOP must be strongly united! The left must be crushed, demoralized and defeated in perpetuity. LET'S DO THIS!” Another said, “Now we will hope that President Trump goes ahead and nominates Judge Amy Coney Barrett, right away.” One user opined, “He’s going to pick Amy Coney Barrett to try to inflame the culture war as much as possible because he knows he’s losing, isn’t he?” Another said, “I fully expect the nominee to be Amy Coney Barrett and that they will specifically use her gender & invoke the name of RBG as an inspiration and model and somehow twist the nomination into a "tribute" to her legacy. It will be ghoulish gaslighting & some even will buy it.”