Amy Coney Barrett's Problem

 

 

We need to understand some undeniable realities: Barring a miracle, Amy Coney Barrett is going to be the next Associate Justice to the United States Supreme Court. There's no more argument about it: she has made a decided impression on many people, myself included. She's articulate, and obviously quite intelligent. She has a lot of love in her heart - so much love that, in addition to her own kids, she and her husband adopted two children. I would choose Amy Coney Barrett as my best friend if I had the opportunity.

I just don't think that she should be on the Supreme Court.

It's amazing to me that anyone would seriously consider her as a justice on the highest court in the land. What is the matter with them?

Here is my prayer:

In 1952 at the Republican National Convention. Dwight D. Eisenhower had almost enough delegates to receive the nomination - almost enough. The one person standing between him and the executive mansion was the conservative governor of California, Earl Warren. Eisenhower told Warren that, if he sent his delegates over to him, he could have anything he wanted when Ike entered the oval office. Warren told the general that he wanted the first available seat that became vacant on the Supreme Court. Eisenhower told him that it was a done deal. He won the nomination and was sworn in on January 20, 1953.

Eight months later, in September, when Chief Justice Fred Vinson died unexpectedly. Warren showed up at the White House waiting to take the job,

"No! No! No!", said Eisenhower, "This is the Chief Justice position - that's different!"

"Ike", said Earl [and I am imagining all of this dialogue], you said 'the first available seat' ".

Eisenhower, being a man of honor and of his word, had to concede that a deal was a deal. On the first Monday of October 1953, Earl Warren was on the highest court in the land.

The problem is, that as conservative as Warren was as the governor of California, he didn't always tow the Republican party line. He turned out to be one of the most progressive jurists in American history. Once when asked by someone how an essentially conservative politician could become such a progressive justice, Warren replied that the view from up there (the bench) is a lot different than the view from down here (meaning, essentially, the political world). All of the great chief and associate justices understand this basic fact.

Near the end of his career, Eisenhower said to a journalist, "Elevating Earl Warren to the Supreme Court was the biggest damn fool mistake of my life".

My biggest prayer is that, in the last interview of his sick career, Donald Trump says: "Elevating Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court was the biggest damn fool mistake of my life."

Wistful thinking, perhaps, but I can dream, can't I?

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

Here is a mini-documentary to watch on the life and times of Earl Warren, made at the time he retired in 1969. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kf_tyoABCs 

He was one of the great ones.