On September 18, the death of US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg added a card to the complex game of the US election campaign. The post left vacant by this emblematic figure of progressivism has opened the battle between the supporters of a replacement before the November 3 election and those who, on the contrary, believe that it would be up to the future president-elect to choose his replacement.
US President Donald Trump wants to quickly appoint Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s successor or successor before the presidential election. On September 26, he proposed the name of Amy Coney Barrett, judge at the United States Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit (competent for the states of Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin), Catholic belonging to a charismatic movement, mother of seven children, “pro-life”. An appointment that could be easily confirmed by the Senate, currently with a Republican majority, confirming the shift of the Supreme Court into the conservative camp.
Since his inauguration in early 2017, Donald Trump has already had to appoint two judges to the Supreme Court. The first time, in January 2017, with the conservative judge Neil Gorsuch, replacing Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016, during the last year of Barack Obama’s second term. At the time, unlike what is happening now, the Senate – with a Republican majority – refused the hearing of the candidate proposed by the outgoing Democratic president, arguing the proximity of the electoral deadline.
In 2018, President Trump appointed the conservative Brett Kavanaugh, replacing Anthony Kennedy, a conservative judge whose votes on social issues (same-sex marriage, abortion rights, etc.) often followed the opinion of the progressive bloc of the Supreme Court.
In view of her positions in the Court of Appeal, Amy Coney Barrett is considered very conservative. In the past, she has spoken out against the landmark Roe v. Wade, who legalized abortion in 1973, which she described as “Creating by a judicial decision a framework for abortion on request”.
In the past, several judges appointed by conservative presidents have moved towards progressive positions, such as John Paul Stevens, appointed by Republican Gerald Ford, opposed to a restriction on the right to abortion, or Anthony Kennedy, appointed by Ronald Reagan and whose vote in 2015 made it possible to legalize same-sex marriage across the country.
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