Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's Supreme Court nominee, has only been a judge for three years.
But combing through her cases, she's developed a robust record on abortion, immigration, and gun rights 🧵 buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Barrett's views on abortion will be at the center of her confirmation. At Notre Dame, where she was a law professor, she spoke about her opposition to abortion and was a member of University Faculty for Life.
She hasn’t written opinions or dissents about abortion since becoming a judge but participated in two cases that offer insight. In both instances, while on the 7th Circuit, she sided with Indiana in legal fights over the state’s unsuccessful push to restrict abortion practices.
Barrett's record on police power is less clear cut. In 2019, she wrote opinions both upholding and denying qualified immunity to law enforcement officers accused of misconduct.
But also that year, Barrett sided with law enforcement in a lawsuit challenging prison discipline tactics. In a dissenting opinion, she disagreed with reviving a lawsuit filed by inmates who were hit by buckshot fired by guards.
On immigration, Barrett sided with the Trump administration’s decision to expand a rule that would deny permanent residency to immigrants deemed likely to use public benefits.
In June 2020 though, she did side with liberal-leaning colleagues in writing an opinion not only reviving a deportation challenge, but also disagreeing with a legal opinion issued in 2018 by then-attorney general Jeff Sessions.
On gun rights, in 2019 she wrote critically about federal and state laws that ban people convicted of most felony crimes from owning a firearm.
In her dissent, Barrett worried the Second Amendment was being treated as a “second-class” right.
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