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ROME – Professor Rick Garnett, a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame with Judge Amy Coney Barrett, U.S. President Donald Trump’s newest pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, has weighed in on the discussion of just how much faith should be part of the vetting process.
A professor of political science and director of Notre Dame’s program on Church, State and Society, Garnett said that ultimately, “judges decide legal questions, not religious ones.”
“If they are doing their jobs correctly,” he said, “they seek to determine what the laws and rules made by others require; they do not issue decisions that happen to advance their own beliefs or policy preferences.”
All judges “have beliefs, commitments, ideals, and values. This is unsurprising, and there’s nothing worrisome about it,” he said, adding that in his view, Barrett has carried out her role “with humility.”
A former clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections, Barrett, 48, is a longtime faculty member at her alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, and since 2017 has served as a judge on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Saturday, Sept. 26, Trump nominated Barrett – a practicing Catholic with seven children – to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18 after battling cancer.
Barrett’s faith has fallen into the public spotlight ever since rumors of her nomination began to make the rounds, largely linked to an episode during her hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017 when she was being considered for a seat on the appeals court.
Continued below.
Faith should not be a factor in court vetting process, expert says
A professor of political science and director of Notre Dame’s program on Church, State and Society, Garnett said that ultimately, “judges decide legal questions, not religious ones.”
“If they are doing their jobs correctly,” he said, “they seek to determine what the laws and rules made by others require; they do not issue decisions that happen to advance their own beliefs or policy preferences.”
All judges “have beliefs, commitments, ideals, and values. This is unsurprising, and there’s nothing worrisome about it,” he said, adding that in his view, Barrett has carried out her role “with humility.”
A former clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections, Barrett, 48, is a longtime faculty member at her alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, and since 2017 has served as a judge on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Saturday, Sept. 26, Trump nominated Barrett – a practicing Catholic with seven children – to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18 after battling cancer.
Barrett’s faith has fallen into the public spotlight ever since rumors of her nomination began to make the rounds, largely linked to an episode during her hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017 when she was being considered for a seat on the appeals court.
Continued below.
Faith should not be a factor in court vetting process, expert says