With one Supreme Court seat open and less than a month until the presidential election, many Americans are worried about the future of our country. // Photo courtesy of The Foundation for Economic Education.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, died Friday, Sept. 18 after serving for 27 years on the highest court. President Donald Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett, a judge on the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, to replace Ginsburg on Saturday, Sept. 26, sparking national controversy.

“She is an absolute disgrace to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s name,” said Leilah Abelman, a junior political science major. “Yes, she’s a woman, but she stands against everything that Ruth Bader Ginsburg stood for.”

Ginsburg was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1993 to the highest court, serving as the second woman to sit on the Supreme Court bench. She is most notably remembered as a pioneer for gender equality.  

Just days before her death, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” according to NPR. Ginsburg knew what was to come.

Ginsburg’s death has given Republicans the chance to shift the political weight of the Supreme Court to heavily conservative with a 6-3 majority.

“With Judge Barrett in the Supreme Court, [the Court] would be constituted by six extremely conservative justices out of nine members,” said James Sample, Hofstra professor of law. “Consequently, the incentive for any one of those justices to moderate their views and reach compromise[s] and resolutions will be minimized.”

Alongside a conservative majority, Barrett’s vote could make the difference for decades ahead, especially on issues tending to cause disagreements, such as abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act.

“While Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought her entire life to expand rights for women, Amy Coney Barrett’s going to do the complete opposite,” Abelman said. “She’s going to restrict women’s rights.”

Barrett’s religious affiliation with the Catholic Church has been at the forefront of her legal work, particularly in terms of abortion rights and gay marriage. She has repeatedly insisted that her faith does not compromise her work, but others beg to differ.

“Religion is such a big deal to her that it’s going to influence her way of thinking regarding anything,” said Karys Tipton, a senior music and political science double major. “She has said that she basically just sees being a judge as a means to an end to get people into the kingdom of heaven.”

There is growing concern among the American people that Barrett could be the one to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark Supreme Court decision that protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.

In a “Professors for Lunch” series at the University of Notre Dame in 2013, Barrett denied the possibility of Roe v. Wade being reversed: “I think it is very unlikely at this point that the Court is going to overturn Roe [v. Wade], or Roe [v. Wade] as curbed by [Planned Parenthood v.] Casey,” she said. “The fundamental element that a woman has a right to choose abortion will probably stand.”

Sample argued Barrett “will be a vote that will overturn Roe v. Wade.”

On the other hand, Tipton is more concerned about the recent rulings on abortion as far as the states’ ability to restrict access to it. “I don’t think [Roe v. Wade] will be overturned, but I am concerned that the freedom that we were given with Roe v. Wade will be limited,” she said.

Tipton is not as much worried about Roe v. Wade as she is the status of Obergefell v. Hodges, a landmark civil rights case in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.

“[Barrett] reads the Constitution as it was originally written; originally they saw marriage as being between a man and a woman, and there is no straight up constitutional provision for anyone in the LGBTQ+ community,” she said. “A lot of people like her are more likely to rule according to the Constitution as it is plainly written.”

As far as health care goes, “Judge Barrett has been extremely critical of the Supreme Court decisions related to health care,” Sample said. “She quite likely will support a vote that [strikes] down the protections in the Affordable Care Act.”

Despite these growing concerns, Barrett’s qualifications have yet to be questioned.   

“She’s a very accomplished, young appeal court judge. She would be the youngest member of the Supreme Court at 48 years old,” Sample said. “However, I think that her nomination is being rushed in the weeks prior to the most consequential election in presidential history [and that] is dangerous to our democracy.”

Barrett will potentially be Trump’s third appointed nominee to the Supreme Court, following Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, both of whom were controversial nominees.

Gorsuch replaced the late Antonin Scalia despite Scalia’s death occurring during President Barack Obama’s term. Congressional Republicans denied the Democrats the opportunity to replace Scalia, citing the proximity of the general election as a deterrent in confirming Obama’s nomination.

However, people are calling the Republican party “hypocritical,” since Ginsburg died less than two months before an election and Trump has been granted permission to nominate a new justice despite the precedent set in 2016.

Twenty-eight percent of Trump’s appointees to the federal judiciary have been females, according to the Pew Research Center. Some students argued the nomination of Barrett is only to increase Trump’s presidential polls.

 “It’s a PR move to [nominate] a woman [to the Supreme Court],” said David Frattaroli, a senior marketing major. “She’s an intelligent woman, and she’s got the resume and background for [the Supreme Court], but I think overall for [Trump], he doesn’t give a s— about that.”

Other students viewed Trump’s selection in a similar manner.

“Some presidents – Trump is one of them – will appoint people to the federal judiciary on the basis of ideology,” said Thomas Nielsen, a senior political science major.

“At the end of the day, it’s another white person, white Christian person in a position of power,” Frat
taroli continued. “It’s just a big ‘for show’ deal with him, but it just so happens that she happens to be a good candidate for the job.”

Barrett may be a qualified justice for the Supreme Court, but most assert that she will not live up to the legacy of Ginsburg.

“Justice Ginsburg [was] a giant in the law,” Sample said. “Justice Ginsburg’s career prior to taking the bench was that of a remarkable, driven [and] talented woman who broke through glass ceiling after glass ceiling … I see no indication that Judge Barrett would do anything of the sort.”