With only sixteen days to go before November 3’s elections, the Supreme Court is facing many new issues and potential changes to long-standing Supreme Court decisions. To the nation’s detriment, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed away. Not only has her death affected us because of how much of an icon she was, but also because of the role she played in the Supreme Court. Until her death, there was a conservative majority of 5-4 in the Supreme Court, now with the potential addition of a new conservative justice, there will be a 6-3 majority, which can alter the future decisions made by this court.
Who is the new justice that would have to fill the large shoes of RBG, you may ask? Amy Coney Barrett is another circuit-court judge and a former professor at Notre Dame Law School. Barrett has all of the qualifications of being a justice, however, because President Trump was able to nominate her, she is undoubtedly a conservative. Her stance on various topics is in complete opposition to her predecessor, Justice Ginsburg. Liberals and conservatives alike expect her to enable the dismantling of Roe v Wade and perhaps lead to the undoing of Ginsburg’s legacy.
Before we delve deeper let’s get a quick rundown of what Roe v Wade is. Wade was a 1971 - 1973 landmark decision by the US Supreme Court. The court ruled that a state law that banned abortions (except to save the life of the mother) was unconstitutional. The ruling made abortion legal in many circumstances. The court’s very controversial decision enraged religious Americans as well as many republicans. Now with the nomination of the sixth Catholic justice, this decision is more than likely to be either overturned or seriously restricted. Barrett herself said. “ I think the question of whether people can get very late-term abortions, how many restrictions can be put on clinics—I think that would change”.
How Barrett will act as a Supreme Court Justice is still unknown, however, what is known, is that if she gets sworn in the roots of the crucial decisions made by the court will be inherently more conservative, but if she has a good sense of her predecessor’s values, rights such as those that protect women and equality, in general, will survive the shift to the right.