President Donald Trump said Monday that he plans to announce a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as early as Wednesday and that his list is “down to five” people. Likely among them is Amy Coney Barrett, a judge on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and, although it’s not clear where she falls on Trump’s list, left-leaning activists and the mainstream media appear to have marked her as a top threat.
The Washington Post has been leading the way in rooting out concerns about Barrett, with two reporters weighing in on the judge’s record — and her Catholic faith.
On Monday, The Washington Post reported that Barrett authored a significant ruling on campus sexual assault, challenging universities that used lower standards of guilt to convict students accused of sexual assaults on campus and opened the door to students accused and convicted of sexual assaults by campus authorities to appeal those decisions.
Amy Coney Barrett, potential Supreme Court nominee, wrote influential ruling on campus sexual assault https://t.co/ix2njR38kY
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 21, 2020
“Amy Coney Barrett, a leading contender for the Supreme Court seat held by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, wrote an influential appellate decision last year that made it easier for students accused of sexual assault to challenge universities’ handling of their cases,” the WaPo reported. “Barrett led a three-woman panel of judges that said Purdue University may have discriminated against a male student accused of sexual assault when it suspended him for a year, a punishment that cost him his spot in the Navy ROTC program.”
In another shocking revelation, The Washington Post noted that Amy Coney Barrett, who is well known to be a devout Catholic, is also a Christian.
“Amy Coney Barrett, the judge at the top of Trump’s list to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has said we should always remember that a ‘legal career is but a means to an end … and that end is building the Kingdom of God,'” one Washington Post reporter tweeted breathlessly, referencing a story published over the weekend with details about Barrett’s life.
Progressive activists, not content to focus on Barrett’s record, zeroed in on her seven children, claiming that Barrett was trying to model the large family she would “force” on other women should she be nominated and confirmed to the Supreme Court.
“Trump’s likely RBG replacement, Amy Coney Barrett, is a Catholic extremist with 7 children who does not believe employers should be required to provide health care coverage for birth control,” one panicked. “She wants the rest of American women to be stuck with her extreme lifestyle.”
Deleted tweet from @arlenparsa: "Amy Coney Barrett is a Catholic extremist with seven children" who "wants the rest of American women to be stuck with her extreme lifestyle." pic.twitter.com/0O21TsUdO7
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) September 21, 2020
Barrett, of course, is a law professor and accomplished judge who also raised seven children, two of whom are adopted. The combination should win her accolades, but because she would likely support a past Supreme Court decision noting that the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty allows elderly nuns to challenge a requirement of the Affordable Care Act that they pay for birth control in violation of their closely held religious beliefs, she’s exiled.
Related: Gingrich: If It’s Barrett, Will Kamala Rein In Her Anti-Catholic Bigotry?