Amy Coney Barrett at the Supreme Court of the United States: "This is a historic turning point"

Conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett at the White House, September 26, 2020. REUTERS / Carlos Barria

Text by: Achim Lippold Follow

6 min

The US Senate is expected to vote this Monday, October 26, 2020, for the appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

It was President Donald Trump himself who chose the conservative lawyer fiercely opposed to abortion.

And his confirmation to the Supreme Court is timely as the electoral campaign enters its home stretch and the outgoing president, lagging behind in the polls, is trying to remobilize his electorate.

One week before the presidential election, Donald Trump succeeds one last blow: to have permanently anchored a conservative majority within this key institution.

Interview with the historian of the United States Simon Grivet.

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RFI: You say that the arrival of Amy Coney Barrett at the Supreme Court is a turning point in recent United States history.

Why

Simon Grivet

: It is a historic turning point because it is the consolidation of a republican project carried out for a long time.

The GOP (Grand Old Party) - the Republican Party - has been working for about thirty years to push its pawns.

Lawyers who are won over to their ideas.

For Republicans, this is a bit unexpected because the Supreme Court has so far had a rather subtle conservative majority, a majority that was not stable at five to four.

But with the

they will be six conservative judges against three progressives, which is a much more comfortable majority.

You say it's the culmination of a "

Yes.

Because we must not forget that in 2016, most Republican officials blocked their noses in front of Donald Trump: they did not want to talk to him, they did not want to make it clear that they supported him.

He is someone who stormed the Republican Party with positions that in France would be considered extreme right.

He was infrequent but finally the Republicans gave in by concluding what I call a "Faustian deal": Ok, we accept you as you are, but in return, you must guarantee us that you will advance our magistrates.

Let us not forget that in 2016, Donald Trump published a list of magistrates he wanted to appoint to the Supreme Court, something that has never been done before.

Why is the role of these judges important

For decades the Supreme Court has become the arbiter of the highly controversial societal issues that are at the heart of the debate between Republicans and Democrats.

Take the issue of abortion, which mobilizes the Christian right, the evangelical right and the conservatives like no other subject.

They dream of going back on the historic judgment of 1973, Roe V. Wade, which recognized the right of American women to have an abortion.

Beyond abortion, there is also the issue of the right to own firearms.

A conservative Supreme Court could make it very difficult to pass legislation to control guns.

A first test to know the attitude of the judges will be the hearing concerning the future of Obamacare.

Democrats have played a lot on this to try to torpedo the judge's appointment by saying she is against

The stake of the hearing scheduled for November 10 is quite particular: the State of Texas believes that since the obligation to contribute for health insurance has been removed, in any case there are no more fines. to pay if you do not take out insurance, well the whole law must be considered unconstitutional.

It's a pretty radical approach, which is to say that if there is one piece of the law that no longer works, the whole law must be struck down.

This position is debated among the magistrates.

During the hearings, we will surely have an idea of ​​the attitude that the judges will adopt.

They have until the end of June 2021 to make their decision known.

It is quite possible that the law on health insurance will be overturned.

To counterbalance the influence of the three magistrates appointed by Donald Trump, some are now advancing the idea of ​​increasing the seats on the Supreme Court.

Is this a realistic option

It is legally possible.

One can quite imagine the Congress voting in favor of a Supreme Court composed of between 11 and 15 judges.

But it's a little heavy to bear politically, even with a possible new Democratic majority in Congress and a President Biden.

Americans are very attached to their institutions and they don't like it when we change how they work.

Joe Biden remains very cautious on this issue.

He doesn't want to alienate moderate Republicans who might vote for him or centrists who have a deep respect for institutions.

He therefore announced in the event of victory the establishment of a commission to reflect on the reform of the judicial system, it is a delaying strategy.

Joe Biden will surely wait for the vote on Obamacare before reacting.

If the Supreme Court does not annul this law, it is an important message which says: okay we are not on your political side, but we are not extremists either.

I think Joe Biden and his advisers know they need their political capital to advance other more urgent issues like the fight against the pandemic or the socio-economic crisis.

The Supreme Court isn't much of a priority for a would-be President Biden unless the new Tory majority makes decisions that could anger progressives.

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