Nomination of Amy Coney Barrett

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I rise today to offer my support for confirming Louisiana native Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Deciding whether to confirm a Justice to the highest Court in the land is among the most important duties and privileges that a Senator has. We must consider the qualifications of the nominee the President puts forward and determine a nominee's fitness to serve.

In this case, President Donald Trump made a terrific selection in Amy Coney Barrett. The Senate will vote on her confirmation in the coming days, and I will proudly cast my vote to confirm. Here is why:

Judge Barrett is incredibly qualified to serve on the Court. She graduated summa cum laude from Notre Dame Law School, clerked for the late-Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and spent 15 years in academia shaping a new generation of legal minds.

According to her students, she was not an ideologue but, rather, she would listen and take their thoughts and process them and bring them to a better knowledge of the law. With that, she has been universally praised by her former students and ultimately served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Her record and experience show that she is ready for the Supreme Court.

There is some home-State pride. Judge Barrett was raised in Metairie, LA, and is a graduate of St. Mary's Dominican High School. When I go back there, I will see folks with the pen she would have received when she graduated, and they are very proud to have attended the same school and perhaps to have been in the same class.

As a fellow Louisianan, I am proud that one of our own will become a Supreme Court Justice. She will be only the second person from Louisiana to serve on the Court, which, for my State, makes the confirmation historic. But it is more than Louisiana rooting for Amy Coney Barrett; she will serve our country well.

I will also say that I think it fitting that a woman fill the seat that opened after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing. Although she and I had our differences in political and judicial philosophy, she should be recognized for her service and lifelong pursuit of ensuring that women have a seat at the table. We thank the legacy of Justice Ginsburg and her service to the United States.

One of the many things that are notable for Justice Ginsburg that I will emphasize is that she broadened the perspective of SCOTUS--the Supreme Court of the United States--as they treated the law. I think Judge Barrett does the same. She will be the first mother of school-age children to serve on the Court. She and her husband Jesse are raising seven children, two of whom were adopted from Haiti and the youngest of whom has Down syndrome. If there is a mom--whether a working mom or not--who wonders if her perspective is ever spoken to when cases are considered before the Supreme Court, Justice Barrett will bring that perspective to the Court.

Finally, I want to thank Judge Barrett for her willingness to serve. To accept a nomination to the Supreme Court is, sadly, to accept ruthless attacks from partisans seeking to score political points. Her nomination was no different.

She has been repeatedly attacked for being a practicing Catholic. She has every right to live her faith. No one in public service should be expected to cast aside deeply held religious convictions to satisfy an angry mob fabricating reasons to say no.

Thank you, Judge Barrett, for defending your--and by extension all of our--religious liberty.

I think the balance and the grace she exhibited during a very difficult 2 days of being before the committee but in her life in general is testimony to the depth by which she considers the best of her faith.

That said, her political enemies and some in the press intentionally mischaracterized many of her statements, twisting them into new ways to attack her, again fabricating reasons to say no. Yet Judge Barrett handled each attack with grace and dignity.

During her hearing, she displayed time and again that she has the skills, the demeanor, and the experience to serve on the Supreme Court.

On Monday, I will proudly cast my vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. She will serve our country well, and she will serve the future generations that will be influenced by her decisions on the Supreme Court well. I encourage my colleagues to put politics aside and to do the same.

Thank you

I yield back. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Murkowski). The Senator from Connecticut. Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 1112

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