Any Coney Barrett's Supreme Court Induction

    On October 26, Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed into the Supreme Court, days before the presidential election. She filled the post left by Ruth Bader Ginsburg after her death in September. The Supreme Court Justice position is a permanent position, so though the Senate that voted her in is likely to change after the election, her position will stay unless she decides to leave or retire. 

    One issue with her placement is the inconsistency regarding a similar situation back in 2016. The Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said then that Obama would not be allowed to nominate a new justice because it was too close to the election. It was February. Now, McConnell was the biggest supporter of voting in Barrett, less than a month before the election. The hypocrisy of hit decision left many Americans very upset. 

    For her confirmation hearing, Barrett produced 1,800 pages of records on her career for the Senate to review. She used this large number to excuse herself for leaving out a newspaper ad signed by herself supporting the anti-abortion movement. However, compared to justices in the past, this number is almost nothing. Past justices have turned in 75,000, 170,000, and even over 1 million pages of information to the Senate. This leads to questions on whether she actually just missed the ad, or it was a very deliberate decision she made and was hoping to get away with. Also, the low number of document provided might have been a choice so that the Senate had less information to get through and could rush her vote and confirmation. 

    Perhaps the most important factor in the argument against her induction is her lack of experience as a judge. She was in the education field for 15 years, and didn't work as a judge, prosecutor, attorney, counsel, or any other job that justices commonly come out of until 2017 when Trump nominated her into the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. She has close to no experience in law practices. During her hearing in 2017 to be confirmed into the Court of Appeals, she was supposed to be able to list and explain 10 of her past cases. Barrett could only think of 3. 

    Hopefully, even though she seems to be underqualified and unprepared for her seat on the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett will prove to be a fair, unbiased judge, but only time will tell. 

sources: 

- https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/10/amy-coney-barrett-is-the-least-experienced-supreme-court-nominee-in-30-years/

- https://newsela.com/read/amy-barrett-confirmed-supreme-court/id/2001015416/