Reaction to Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court
What political scientists, pro-life advocates and politicians in Connecticut had to say about the newest high court justice.
“Amy Coney Barrett is going to be on the Court for a long time — long after Donald Trump, Joseph Biden, Mitch McConnell and many other have left the political scene. It will be interesting to see how the issues that come before the court change; and it is possible that she reacts to those new issues in completely unexpected ways. Abortion rights, for example, wasn't even an issue when Harry Blackmun was appointed in 1970. We will have to wait and see.”
— David Yalof, UConn political science professor and department head
“You can challenge norms, but we've kind of taken a lot of those for granted…The same thing with the Amy Coney Barrett appointment. Yeah, there's been a norm that you don't want to look for a Supreme Court Justice too close to the election, but that was just a norm. [President Trump] rightly says that he has the constitutional right to appoint justices whenever the heck he wants to during his term.”
— Susan Herbst, UConn political science professor and former UConn president
"It was tragic to see how the Supreme Court was just turned into a political football," —U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District [via The Day]
“This nomination is really one of the worst things in my lifetime for the state of the law. It is not just going to potentially roll back abortion rights. It could also roll back gay marriage. It could mean the Affordable Care Act is flipped. I think we all took for granted that Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land since 1973, but we were just one vote away from that not being the case. We’ve lost that vote now.”
— Carol Gray, UConn Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science
“I am both infuriated and devastated on behalf of our country.”
—Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy [via WTNH]
“Recent cases about the Affordable Care Act, abortion rights, voting rights, affirmative action and LGBTQ rights have all come down to a single vote on the Supreme Court, and with a shift as tectonic as this, all may be under threat…With a court so unbalanced, and likely out of step with the public, attacks on its legitimacy will increase.”
— David McGuire, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut [via Hartford Courant]
“Rushing this nomination on the eve of the election means that she will join them possibly to vote on the election itself while on the court. Is that view apocalyptic? Not if you believe Donald Trump, who said the reason why he wants a ninth justice is [for the court] to decide the election, not the voters,”
—Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal [via CT Mirror]
“I’ve been praying for 15 years for the Supreme Court and the end of abortion…This is the answer to a prayer. She represents a different type of feminism [proving] that you don’t have to chose between your career and your children ... and she will be the first pro-life female Supreme Court justice in history.”
— Christina Bennett, a Connecticut resident and co-chairwoman of Pro-Life Voices for Trump [via Hartford Courant]