The president officially appointed the 48-year-old conservative judge on Saturday to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Eight days after the death of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and while the progressive icon has not yet been buried, Donald Trump made official from the White House on Saturday the name of his candidate to succeed him to the Supreme Court. Far from "RBG", Amy Coney Barrett, a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals, is a 48-year-old Catholic known for her traditionalist religious beliefs. Subject to confirmation by the Senate, it will strengthen the conservative majority within the highest American judicial body, whose judges, who sit there for life, arbitrate the great debates of society, from the bearing of arms to the abortion. Amy Coney Barrett "will stand up for your God-given rights and freedoms," the US president promised supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night.
"Unyielding loyalty"
Earlier in the White House, the President described Barrett as "one of the nation's most brilliant legal minds", and praised his "unyielding loyalty to the Constitution." With seven children, including two adopted, she could become "the first mother to sit on the Supreme Court with school-aged children," Trump said, bolstering a picture designed to appeal to the Christian right, which puts family at heart of its values. "I'm used to being part of a group of nine: my family," she said, a nod to the number of Supreme Court justices.
With just over a month to go before the presidential election, Republicans intend to move forward at a rapid pace. Amy Coney Barrett could be heard by the upper house of Congress as early as mid-October, then be confirmed by the Senate, where Republicans are in the majority, just before the presidential election. Much to the dismay of the Democrats: In 2016, Republicans blocked Barack Obama's candidate for a seat on the court, claiming it was an election year. "The US Constitution was designed to give voters the opportunity to make their voices heard on who sits on the court," said Joe Biden, Trump's presidential rival, in a statement. The Senate should not fill this vacant seat until the Americans have chosen their next president and their next Congress. "
Standing wind
Trump's choice promises to galvanize his conservative base, but can also mobilize the opposition for the election. Barrett is described as the heir to Antonin Scalia, a Supreme Court judge who died in 2016 and revered by the Conservatives, to whom she was assistant in the late 1990s. Like him, she defends "originalism", this legal theory which asserts that the Constitution must be interpreted according to the meaning it had at the time of its proclamation. "A judge must apply the law as it is written," she said on Saturday from the White House. Judges are not political decision-makers. ”
Trump could hardly find a profile further from Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a pioneer in the defense of women's rights. Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation would clearly tip the institution to the right, with six Conservative judges facing three progressives. During a speech in 2006 in front of students of the Catholic University of Notre-Dame, where she graduated and has taught constitutional law for almost twenty years, she recalled that the "fundamental objective" of these future jurists should be “To know, love and serve God”.
"Religious dogma"
"Religious dogma lives loudly in you," Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein had reproached him during her Senate hearing to sit on the Court of Appeal in 2017. Amy Coney Barrett retorted that she knew how to distinguish between his faith and “his responsibilities as a judge”. The confrontation, reduced by the conservatives to a critique of her Catholic faith, had quickly made this unknown scholar a celebrity with the religious right.
Her numerous articles, like her record as a judge, show her in favor of a broad interpretation of the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms. His positions on abortion, which has divided American opinion for nearly half a century, are also under scrutiny. During a speech on Roe v. Wade, the ruling that de facto legalized abortion in the United States, she had said, in tune with opponents of abortion, that life begins at conception. The scholar had publicly criticized the Obama administration for forcing private health insurers to reimburse contraception, calling it a "serious attack on religious freedom."
The judge also said she was not in favor of a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 that allowed Obamacare to be rescued. The institution must, the day afterthe election, once again ruling on the Democratic president’s health care reform. Unraveling the text would potentially deprive millions of Americans of their health coverage, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. "Confirming Coney Barrett would be an insurmountable obstacle in the future" Obamacare laments the progressive group Indivisible. For the organization, this confirmation "would offer Trump the next election, if it is to be decided by a court order." The President has denounced for months, without proof, "massive fraud" during the poll, accusing the Democrats of wanting to "steal the election". He refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, regardless of the outcome of his duel with Joe Biden. In the event of a dispute, the temple of American law could play a decisive role in November.