Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. While she leaves an accomplished legacy in which she advocated for gender equality and women’s rights, she also leaves a bitter court fight in the weeks and months ahead over who will replace her.
Responding to calls to hold off on announcing his nomination until after the election, President Trump said he and the Republican Party need to act swiftly. Speaking to Fox & Friends on Monday, Trump said, “The bottom line is we won the election, we have an obligation to do what’s right and act as quickly as possible.”
So, who exactly does President Trump have in mind?
At the top of the list is Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. Confirmed to the bench in November 2017, Barrett has been on Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees since his first year in office.
Following her graduation from law school, she clerked for D.C. Circuit Court Judge Laurence Silberman and then-Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Her judicial philosophy falls in line with Scalia’s in that both take a “textualist” and “originalist” approach to interpreting the Constitution.
In her short stint on the appellate court, Barrett’s authored opinions casting scrutiny on the handling of a campus sexual assault case at Purdue University, where the court ruled in favor of the defendant, John Doe, saying he was discriminated on the basis of sex and was deprived of his occupational liberty without due process.
On the Second Amendment, Barrett dissented in favor of gun-ownership rights for felons convicted of nonviolent crimes, such as mail fraud in the case of Kanter v. Barr.
To the delight of police reform advocates, Barrett wrote the opinion in William Rainsberger v. Charles Benner that a police detective was not eligible for qualified immunity in the arrest of Rainsberger, the plaintiff, on the charge of murdering his own mother, based on the detective knowingly providing false and misleading information to secure an arrest warrant, leading to the murder charges being dropped and the detective standing trial.
Despite her rulings, Barrett has been criticized for her Catholic faith as exhibited in this exchange with Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein in 2017.
Flashback — Dianne Feinstein to Amy Coney Barrett about ACB’s Catholic faith: “When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you — and that’s of concern.”pic.twitter.com/aMGjVQRmcS
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) September 19, 2020
While the pushback from Democrats was more intense than normal given the position, the Senate confirmed Barrett by a vote of 55-43. She even won the votes of three Democratic Senators: Joe Donnelly, Tim Kaine, and Joe Manchin.
Next up, Barbara Lagoa, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and is the strongest dark horse in the Supreme Court field, is becoming a leading contender overnight.
She rapidly ascended in just the last year after spending nearly 13 years on the Florida 3rd District Court of Appeals. She served for a week as chief judge of the court before being appointed as a justice of the Supreme Court of Florida by newly elected Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2019.
By December, President Trump nominated her to the 11th Circuit, where she was confirmed by a vote of 80-15.
The daughter of Cuban immigrants who fled Fidel Castro’s regime following the Cuban Revolution, Lagoa was one of a dozen lawyers involved in the Elian Gonzalez international custody case in 2000, defending his father.
On the 11th Circuit, Lagoa was part of the 6-4 ruling, upholding a Florida law that requires convicted felons who have served their time in prison or probation to pay all outstanding fines and court fees before being allowed to vote in elections. The decision drew accusations of an ethics violation from Democrats due to her previous active participation in the case while on Florida’s Supreme Court.
Additionally, Lagoa was on Florida’s Supreme Court when it unanimously upheld the suspension of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel for his handling of the Parkland shooting in 2018.
Finally, with less than 50 days until the presidential election, Trump nominating Lagoa could help him electorally in Florida, a factor that makes it all the more likely she’ll be picked.
Lastly, there’s Judge Allison Jones Rushing, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Despite being 38, Rushing has a breadth of experience in the judiciary, clerking for Judge David Sentelle on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, then-Judge Neil Gorsuch when he was on the 10th Circuit, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
However, Rushing spent much of her career in the private sector, working for the esteemed law firm Williams & Connolly, where she regularly handled Supreme Court cases. Despite having only interned for the conservative Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom as a law student, LGBTQ groups have criticized Rushing for her connection to the group, saying it’s sought to ban same-sex marriage and criminalize homosexuality. Rushing was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 53-44.
So, there you have it. Unless he nominates one of the 40 other candidates on his list, which includes Sens. Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley, and Mike Lee, Trump will almost certainly nominate a woman to replace Ginsburg and establish an indefinite conservative lean to the highest court in the land.
