At 48, Amy Coney Barrett is highly regarded by conservatives for her traditionalist religious values that her critics say guide her reading of the law.
Religious, against abortion and in favor of carrying a weapon, she was appointed to the Supreme Court on Saturday by President Donald Trump, angering Democrats.
It reinforces the conservative majority within the key institution that settles all the major debates in American society.
At 48, Amy Coney Barrett, ultra conservative and devout Catholic was appointed Saturday by United States President Donald Trump to sit on the Supreme Court.
The judge is opposed to abortion and in favor of carrying a gun, but if she is confirmed by the Senate to join the highest judicial institution in the country, succeeding the progressive Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died on September 18, she ensures that 'it will have the interests of all Americans in mind.
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There is little doubt about its confirmation since the Senate is dominated by Republicans
"If I am confirmed, I will not only take on this role for the sake of my own and even less for my own sake. I will take on this role to serve you all," she said a few minutes after her appointment.
"I love the United States and I love the Constitution of the United States."
There is little doubt about its confirmation since the Senate is dominated by Republicans.
The senators' vote is expected to take place a week before the presidential election.
Donald Trump wants to go fast and hopes to galvanize his electoral base with this appointment.
His profile, at odds with the very feminist "RBG", divides Americans.
A few years ago, Amy Coney Barrett, mother of seven, had made sure to distinguish between her faith and "her responsibilities as a judge".
But his detractors are not convinced.
At the Chicago Federal Court of Appeals, she notably took positions favorable to guns and against migrants, women seeking abortions and the Obamacare health insurance law that Republicans want to dismantle.
A conservative opposed to abortion, favorable to the carrying of a weapon and very religious
After a childhood in New Orleans, in the conservative South of the United States, she studied brilliantly at Notre Dame Law School, a renowned denominational institution in Indiana, where she was then a professor for 15 years. .
Early in her career, she worked for the conservative Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia, whose "originalist" vision of law she espoused, which requires reading the Constitution as it was intended when it was written.
One of his speeches, delivered to students, is frequently criticized.
Presenting herself as a "jurist of a different style", she had considered that a "legal career" was "a means in the service of a cause" and that the latter was "to build the Kingdom of God".
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Democrats are therefore furious.
If she entered the Supreme Court, "Judge Barrett, who even opposed access to contraception, would be a scourge for women's rights to reproductive health," said Daniel Goldberg, director of the Alliance for Justice, a progressive legal lobby.
On Saturday night, Democratic candidate Joe Biden again called on the Senate not to confirm any nominations until Americans pick their next president in November.