Attorney General Steve Marshall (R-AL) on Thursday joined a coalition of 22 state attorneys general in sending a letter to the U.S. Senate urging the body to immediately hold a hearing and then promptly vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Marshall and his colleagues wrote that the Senate will need little time to conclude that Barrett will make an exemplary Associate Justice due to her “unwavering commitment to a judicial philosophy that prioritizes restraint, humility, and respect for the rule of law.”
The attorneys general argued that Barrett’s impeccable record makes it clear that she has the experience, qualifications and judicial philosophy required to be an outstanding member of our country’s top court.
Barrett currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She clerked for the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, as well as Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Before and while serving on the federal bench, she was a professor of law at Notre Dame Law School. She graduated at the top of her class from the same school.
Additionally, Marshall and the rest of the coalition stressed how history and precedent show that the Senate has plenty of time to review and consider Barrett’s qualifications before voting to confirm her this session.
“Speaking during her nomination to the Seventh Circuit, Judge Barrett emphasized that she has ‘rejected throughout my entire career the proposition that the end justifies the means or that a judge should decide cases based on a desire to reach a certain outcome.’ In other words, it is not the role of judges to create law or policy, or to ‘impose [their] own personal convictions upon the law,'” the attorneys general wrote.
“As guardians of the Constitution, Supreme Court Justices bear a special responsibility to prevent the other branches of the federal government from encroaching on individual liberties and the States’ power to provide for the health, education, and welfare of their people. From Judge Barrett’s stated views of the law and her opinions from the bench, we are confident that she understands this responsibility and will work to safeguard the constitutional framework our Founding Fathers intended,” they added. “Indeed, Judge Barrett’s judicial opinions display a robust commitment to interpreting the Constitution based on its original meaning.”
The letter was led by the Attorney General Jeff Landry of Louisiana, where Barrett was born and raised, and joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
“Judge Barrett is self-evidently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court, and the Senate should act immediately to confirm her as associate justice,” Marshall added in a statement. “And there is time to do so before the election. Justice O’Connor was confirmed in 33 days by a unanimous vote. Justice Ginsburg was confirmed in 42 days by a near-unanimous vote (only three senators voted ‘nay’). There is no reason Judge Barrett’s confirmation process should be any different.”
RELATED: Senator Richard Shelby backs Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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