Professor Amy Barrett Will Be An Asset To Our Judiciary
‘Yesterday, the Senate advanced the nomination of Professor Amy Barrett, President Trump’s impressive nominee to be a judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She is the first of four strong nominees to our nation’s circuit courts that the Senate will confirm this week. Professor Barrett’s experience as a distinguished law professor at the University of Notre Dame shows her qualifications to serve our nation on the federal bench.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding the president’s nominee for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Professor Amy Barrett:
“Yesterday, the Senate advanced the nomination of Professor Amy Barrett, President Trump’s impressive nominee to be a judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She is the first of four strong nominees to our nation’s circuit courts that the Senate will confirm this week. Professor Barrett’s experience as a distinguished law professor at the University of Notre Dame shows her qualifications to serve our nation on the federal bench. She will be an asset to our judiciary.
“Now, of course, some on the Left have tried to invent any reason to prevent this President’s nominees from advancing. For an outstanding nominee like Professor Barrett, their task was not an easy one. They can’t attack her credentials — which are impressive. They can’t attack her belief in the rule of law – Professor Barrett’s writings and her testimony clearly show a nominee who will uphold our Constitution and our nation’s laws as they are written, not as she wishes they were.
“Unbelievably, some on the political Left, including some of our Democratic colleagues, are actually criticizing Professor Barrett for a law review article she co-wrote back in law school by saying it says the opposite of what it actually does. They claim that Professor Barrett wrote that a judge should put her personal beliefs ahead of the rule of law when, in fact, she said a judge should not do that. She wrote that if a judge’s personal views were to impede that judge’s ability to impartially apply the law, then the judge should recuse herself from the case.
“As the co-author of that article, and current President of Catholic University, recently put it, ‘The case against Prof. Barrett is so flimsy, that you have to wonder whether there isn't some other, unspoken, cause for their objection.’ It does make you wonder. To those using this matter as cover to oppose Professor Barrett because of her personally held religious beliefs — let me remind you, there are no religious tests for public office in this country. That’s not how we do things here.
“Our government and our nation are made better through the service of qualified people of faith. That will surely be true of Professor Amy Barrett. I look forward to voting to confirm this accomplished law professor and devoted mother of seven later today. I urge my colleagues to join me. Once we do, the Senate will advance another of President Trump’s well-qualified circuit court nominees, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen, to serve on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“Justice Larsen is the second of three accomplished women whom the Senate will consider this week for appointment to our circuit courts. I assume that all three of these impressive women will receive strong support from our Democratic colleagues, who never seem to miss an opportunity to talk about a ‘War on Women.’”
Related Issues: Nominations, Judicial Nominations
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