A Personal Case for Justice Amy Coney Barrett | Richard W. Garnett

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A Personal Case for Justice Amy Coney Barrett | Richard W. Garnett
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It has become something of a ritual among legal junkies and Supreme Court watchers: After nine months of experts’ telling all who ask about this-or-that hot-button, big-ticket case that “a decision is expected in late June,” late June finally arrives, and the Justices release a raft of highly anticipated—and often highly controversial—closely divided rulings.

This year, however, even the Court’s anxiously awaited rulings on the Trump administration’s “travel ban,” the free-speech rights of crisis pregnancy centers, the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering, and the ability of public-sector unions to require financial support from non-members faded quickly from the conversation. That is because, on June 27, after more than thirty years at the center of many of the Supreme Court’s most famous (and infamous) decisions, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced his retirement.

Selecting Kennedy’s replacement could turn out to be one of the current administration’s most consequential tasks. A Court that seemed likely, after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in 2016, to shift in a “liberal” direction could well embrace a more “conservative” approach, not only to statutory and constitutional interpretation, but also with respect to its own role in our government, our policies, and our culture.

Read more at: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/07/a-personal-case-for-justice-amy-coney-barrett