Amy Coney Barrett: 5 things to know about Trump’s Supreme Court nominee
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WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — President Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court.
Barrett, 48, was nominated by President Trump in a Saturday evening ceremony at the White House. The nomination sets off a swift effort in the Republican-led Senate to confirm her before Election Day in 5-1/2 weeks.
Barrett was previously considered as a finalist for Trump’s second nomination to the high court, which eventually went to Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
A devout Catholic and mother of seven, she is a favorite among religious conservatives and considered a strong opponent of abortion.
- Barrett was nominated by Trump to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and confirmed by the Senate in October 2017 by a 55-43 vote. The 7th Circuit, based in Chicago, covers the states of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
- In her nearly three years on the bench, Barrett’s judicial record includes the authorship of approximately 100 opinions and several telling dissents in which Barrett displayed her clear and consistent conservative interpretation.
- Barrett served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. She worked briefly as a lawyer in private practice in Washington, D.C., before returning to the University of Notre Dame Law School, her alma mater, to become a professor in 2002.
- During her Senate confirmation hearing for the appeals court in 2017, Democrats pressed Barrett on whether her strong religious views would impact her potential rulings on abortion and other social issues. Barrett responded that she takes her Catholic faith seriously, but said that “I would stress that my personal church affiliation or my religious belief would not bear in the discharge of my duties as a judge.”
- She is married to Jesse Barrett, a former federal prosecutor who is a partner at a law firm in South Bend, Indiana. The couple has seven children, including two adopted from Haiti and one child with special needs.
The Associated Press and Nexstar Media Wire contributed to this report.
