From October 12-15, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee conducted hearings considering the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. Barrett, formerly a judge on the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, was announced as President Donald Trump’s nominee for the court on September 26, eight days after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
On the first day of hearings, each senator on the Judiciary Committee was given an opportunity to make an opening statement regarding their support or opposition to Barrett’s confirmation, followed by an opportunity for Barrett to make her own statement. The next two days were used for each senator to question Barrett, and the last day for questioning and testimony of outside witnesses for and against Barrett’s nomination.
Barrett’s Catholic faith was expected to be a point of discussion, as it was in her 2017 confirmation hearing for her nomination to the Seventh Circuit. At that hearing, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) said to Barrett that “the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern,” in reference to Barrett’s Catholic beliefs and the implications they hold in potential rulings concerning issues such as abortion.
Barrett is notably an alumna of the University of Notre Dame Law School, where she has also taught constitutional law since 2002. When introducing Barrett to the Judiciary Committee, Patricia O’Hara, former Notre Dame Law School dean, spoke about the respect Barrett’s students and colleagues have for her. However, a petition from over 100 Notre Dame faculty not limited to the Law School opposing Barrett’s nomination circulated during the hearings.
During the 2017 hearing, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) questioned Barrett’s paid speaking engagements at the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, a summer program for Christian law students funded by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The ADF is a legal group who, according to their website, advocates for “religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, freedom of speech, and marriage and family.”
During the recent hearing, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) further questioned these engagements, citing the ADF’s “decade-long efforts to recriminalize homosexuality,” to which Barret responded she was not aware, and that her lectures did not extend beyond the topic of constitutional originalism.
During his opening statement, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) mentioned articles written about Barrett that questioned her fitness for a judicial position based on religious grounds, such as her involvement with People of Praise, a charismatic group of multiple Christian denominations based in South Bend, Indiana. He then criticized Senator and vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris (D-CA) for her questioning of Brian Buesher, then nominee for the U.S. District Court in Nebraska, on his membership in the Knights of Columbus and their position on abortion in 2018.
Hawley also mentioned Article VI of the U.S. Constitution and its prohibition on religious tests as qualification for office, and denounced what he saw as “religious bigotry” from Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee. He criticized Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) for referencing Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 case declaring that married couples can buy and use contraception, which he believed to be an attack on Barrett’s Catholic beliefs.
At multiple points, Barrett assured the committee she would not let her personal beliefs interfere with her decisions. Questioning from Democratic senators did not explicitly mention Barrett’s faith, rather, it mainly concerned the Affordable Care Act, Roe v. Wade, gun control, and the upcoming presidential election, as well as questioning the timing of the hearing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), among others, questioned Barrett for her signing of a statement opposing abortion and supporting life “from fertilization to natural death” from St. Joseph County Right to Life, a pro-life group located in South Bend. “[The statement] simply validated the teaching of my church on the sacredness of life and protection to natural death,” Barrett responded.
In questioning from Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) surrounding religious freedom, Lee commended Barrett’s Seventh Circuit rulings in favor of the “ministerial exemption” for religious organizations in hiring practices, including allowing Catholic schools to fire or hire teachers on religious grounds.
In light of many discussions in the committee surrounding Barrett’s potential rulings on abortion law, Senate Democrats invited Crystal Good, a woman who testified about her working to obtain an abortion at age 16 despite a parental consent law in West Virginia. Good opposed Barrett’s nomination based on her belief that Barrett would overturn Roe v. Wade.
Barrett was voted through committee on October 22 by a 12-0 vote, as every Republican voted “yes”, and all 10 Democrats boycotted the vote. She was confirmed to the Supreme Court on October 26 by a 52-48 vote and sworn in later that night.
Adam is a senior from Columbus, Ohio. He previously served as Campus News and Culture Editor, and boasts the title of least cultured to ever serve as the latter. Holding a minor in Biology, he recently converted from STEM and now majors in Philosophy and Classical Studies. He currently leads Una Voce, the Latin Mass society at BC, and sings with the University Chorale of Boston College and the Chorale Chamber Singers. He enjoys Gregorian Chant, relearning the clarinet, and is an unabashed Ohio apologist.
- BC Political Science Professors Discuss Religiosity in American Politics - February 23, 2023
- Senioritis, Sloth, and the Spiritual Life - November 4, 2022
- The “Quia Respexit” of Bach’s Magnificat - November 4, 2022