OPINION:
Amy Coney Barrett is an asset to the legal profession, and should be swiftly confirmed to the Supreme Court. At this crucial time in our nation’s history, no high court seat should sit vacant longer than is needed to nominate and confirm a new justice.
Barrett understands that the role of a Supreme Court justice is to interpret the law and the Constitution fairly, not to play super-legislator by writing her own value judgments into law. Barrett once stated, “If we reduce the courts to mere politics, then why do we need them? We already have politicians.”
Barrett has proven that she values upholding the original understanding of the Constitution. It is certain she would bring the thoughtfulness that she has displayed as a professor and jurist to the high court. She has written frequently on precedent and stare decisis, the legal principle that courts rely on existing precedent. She has been critical, blaming an overreliance on stare decisis for creating inflexibility for the courts that makes it more difficult to overcome previous error.
Could the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg have imagined, when she was graduating law school at the top of her class without job offers because she was a woman and a mother, that someday the president would choose her successor for the Supreme Court from a group of qualified, talented, working moms? Now, another working mother at the top of her law school class can carry on that legacy and continue to trailblaze for women in the legal profession.
Barrett has worn many hats: judge, professor, wife, mom. All have prepared her for another title: associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
BRIAN J. GOLDENFELD
Oak Park, Calif.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.