5 The News Issue 12 July 2024 The RGS Gazette influence on the court cannot be understated. Indeed, when presiding over close cases, a much greater proportion of (82%) his decisions have been conservative in nature, although he has sided with liberal judges in key cases such as in NFIB v Sebelius (2012), which defended President Obama’s healthcare plan. Amy Coney Barrett Appointed to the Supreme Court just 8 days before the 2020 Presidential election, Amy Coney Barrett’s position as a Justice is hotly debated five years on and will be forever regarded as one of the three Justices who are tied to Trump’s patronage. Succeeding the famously liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg following her death in 2020, she has been a significant factor in Trump’s successful attempts to tip the balance of the Supreme Court to a 63 Conservative majority. Although, as a clerk, she was involved in the influential Supreme Court decision Bush vs Gore (2000), Barrett’s judicial experience prior to being appointed a justice was largely clerical work for the Columbia Court of Appeals in 1997/98, and is certainly less qualified than her Chief Justice for a job as important as this, although she was ranked as ‘well qualified’ by the American Bar Association. Though most political critics are concerned more immediately with her guaranteed proTrump vote in the upcoming case, there are wider implications of such a judicial composition. For if it is so easy to overcome abortion rights, what other rights of the American citizen can be rescinded by judges who join the bench for life? Neil Gorsuch Despite being the first of Trump’s appointees to join the bench in 2017, Gorsuch divided both public and bipartisan opinion. His reputation for upholding the law fairly and correctly would set the basis for the strict constructionist perspectives which he would apply to cases of the highest court ten years later. Indeed, for many in the house, such a reputation meant that he gathered bipartisan support during his confirmation process. However, the faith vested in him would prove, for Democrats, to be strongly misguided as he advanced into the first few years of his justiceship. Certainly, the taint of fraternisation with prominent members of the GOP, and his mother’s history as head of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Reagan Administration in 1981 would see him covertly split with the conventions of judicial independence and neutrality, to become possibly the most conservative judge on the court – proven by his vote to overturn the Roe vs Wade abortion rights in the case Dobbs vs Jackson (2022). Brett Kavanaugh Kavanaugh’s 2018 nomination was possibly the most contentious and controversial appointment to the Supreme Court in its long history of upholding the rights of the US Constitution. Indeed, Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh was an excellent example of how the modern confirmation process is one of the most politicised, gruelling, and unforgiving processes in the American political system. The heart of the controversy was a statement at Kavanaugh’s appointment hearing, which saw Professor Christine Ford accuse Kavanaugh of sexual assault and attempted rape while they were at Yale Law School together in 1987. This became the catalyst for a confirmation hearing like no other that included protesters banging on t he doors of the Senate; protesters climbing on top of the justice statue; protesters in handmaids clothing refusing to leave the Senate building and protesters in the back of Kavanaugh’s hearing. An extremely partisan Senate confirmation vote saw Kavanaugh appointed by a vote 5048, the narrowest margin in the Senate’s history, with Trump claiming a victory that critics argue will prove incredibly dangerous to women’s rights during Kavanaugh’s lifelong term. Conclusion Having taken a glance at this politicised, morally questionable process and the justices that have arisen from it, I can’t see what hope there is for a fair, independent, and balanced judiciary in the United States? Furthermore, with vital insights into the questionable experience and blights in both the personal and judicial lives of these four justices, what new crises of humanity are waiting to unfold behind the reclusive four walls that Lady Justice guards in Washington DC? Supreme Court Justices (top left to right, bottom right to left): John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch "What other rights of the American citizens can be rescinded by judges who join the bench for life?”
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