Trump nominates Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill Supreme Court vacancy

• The Associated Press
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  The Associated Press (AP) is a U.S.-based not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

The move on Saturday caps a dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary that will resonate for a generation.

He also hopes it will provide boost his reelection effort as he looks to fend off Democrat Joe Biden.

Republican senators are lining up for a swift confirmation of Barrett before the Nov. 3 election, as they aim to lock in conservative gains in the federal judiciary before a potential transition of power. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and other Democrats, have condemned Republicans for moving forward with the confirmation process so close to the election.

Barrett would be the sixth justice on the nine-member court to be appointed by a Republican president, and the third of Trump’s first term in office.

She paid tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose death created the vacancy Barrett would fill.

“I am truly humbled by the prospect of serving on the Supreme Court. Should I be confirmed, I will be mindful of who came before me,” Barrett said Saturday. “The flag of the United States is still flying at half staff in memory of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to mark the end of a great American life.

“She not only broke glass ceilings. She smashed them.”

Barrett noted that Ginsburg and Barrett’s mentor, former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, clashed on matters of the law but remained friends.

“These two great Americans demonstrated that arguments even about matters of great consequence, need not destroy affection,” Barrett said.

Barrett, a former Notre Dame law professor and current judge on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, says she is a firm supporter of the Constitution.  In 2016 she said in a speech to students: “We shouldn’t be putting people on the court that share our policy preferences. We should be putting people on the court who want to apply the Constitution.”

On Saturday, she said, referring to Scalia: “His judicial philosophy is mine too. A judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policy makers, and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they might hold.”

Barrett has been on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 2017. Her short tenure as a judge has led to few noteworthy or controversial opinions. She has, however, signed onto several decisions that are sure to be questioned in a possible confirmation fight. They include opinions on issues ranging from abortion to guns to sexual assault on campus to immigration.

She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School and Rhodes College who has taught law at Notre Dame, worked for a Washington law firm and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. She is a devout Catholic mother of seven and Louisiana native born in 1972.