The recent passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg opened up a seat on the United States Supreme Court, just weeks before the presidential election. On September 26th, President Donald Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative federal appeals court judge, to succeed Ginsburg. If confirmed, Barrett would keep the number of women serving on the Court at three, joining Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. She would also become the youngest member of the Court. Most importantly, she would likey cement a 6-3 conservative majority. Today we will explore Barrett’s career and where she stands on major constitutional issues using HeinOnline.

Education and Career

Amy Coney Barrett studied English at Rhodes College in Tennessee, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude. She then attended Notre Dame Law School on a full-tuition scholarship, where she graduated first in her class with a Juris Doctor summa cum laude. During that time, she became an executive editor of the Notre Dame Law Review.

To kickstart her career, she spent two years as a judicial clerk for Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and later clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court.

She eventually returned to her alma mater, Notre Dame, in 2002, where she continues to teach federal courts, constitutional law, and statutory interpretation. While at Notre Dame, Barrett has been awarded the “Distinguished Professor of the Year” award three times.

In 2017, Barrett was nominated by President Trump to the U.S. Court of Appeals. During the nomination hearing, she was questioned about a law review article she co-authored nearly 20 years earlier, arguing that Catholic judges should recuse themselves from death penalty cases. Barrett was questioned about how she would handle this as a judge since she herself is a Roman Catholic. She replied that her religious affiliation would not hinder her duties as a judge and was later confirmed by a 55-43 vote.

Learn More with HeinOnline

With HeinOnline’s robust Law Journal Library, users can research Barrett and her views on hot topics. Begin by checking out her author profile page.

Barrett’s author profile page provides more than a dozen scholarly articles; here are her top three cited ones:

1. Substantive Canons and Faithful Agency
   Boston University Law Review, Vol. 90, Issue 1 (February 2010)
   
2. Stare Decisis and Due Process
   University of Colorado Law Review, Vol. 74, Issue 3 (2003)
   
3. Statutory Stare Decisis in the Courts of Appeals
   George Washington Law Review, Vol. 73, Issue 2 (January 2005)

Now, let’s take a brief look at where she stands on some important issues.

Check out HeinOnline’s Explore This Author feature from within Barrett’s author profile page to learn more about her scholarly work. With this feature, users can see her most-discussed topics, her co-authors, cited works, and much more. Click the Explore This Author button in her author profile.

Explore this Author

For example, click the Cites to option to see all the authors that Barrett has cited.

Click an author’s name to see the articles Barrett has cited in her scholarly work.

History of Supreme Court Nominations

HeinOnline’s History of Supreme Court Nominations database includes the complete series Supreme Court of the U.S. Hearings and Reports on Successful and Unsuccessful Nominations of Supreme Court Justices by the Senate Judiciary Committee by Roy M. Mersky and J. Myron Jacobstein, and continued by Tobe Liebert and then William H. Manz. This ongoing series is considered to be the definitive documentary history of the nominations and confirmation process of both successful and unsuccessful nominations to the Court up through Brett Kavanagh.

Each nomination includes relevant materials, such as:

• Confirmation hearing and transcript on the nomination
• Senate Judiciary Committee vote on the nomination
• Memoranda drafted
• Presidential statements
• Resignation announcements
• Pre-nomination speculation
• Nomination announcement
• Confirmation date

The Browse by Justice option allows users to link directly to relevant content for each justice. Also included are more than 350 titles related to the Supreme Court, links to scholarly articles, and bibliographies.

But Wait, There’s More!

For even more content, check out these blog posts on the Supreme Court:

• I Dissent: The Life and Legacy of the Incomparable Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• McGift v. Oklahoma: A Historic Win for Native American Rights
• Reigning Supreme: All About the Highest Court in the United States
• Proud to Be Born This Way: A Look Back at the Road to Pride and LGBTQ Rights
• The Life and Career of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black