The Senate Votes to Confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court

The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish was that she, “not be replaced until a new president is installed.” 

A week after her death, President Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett as her successor. And now, days before the Election, it has been confirmed.

Linda Nyakundi, senior, is co-president of HHS Girls United MN, a nonprofit led by girls to empower the next generation of women. She believes that the thing they’re most worried about is, “how [Barrett] is going to represent women across the country.”

This worry is one shared across the United States. Barrett is a conservative federal appeals court judge with a strong connection to a patriarchal Christian group. Many citizens feel that her new position puts women’s health care coverage, right to legal abortion, and reproductive health care at risk.

“[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] did such an amazing job speaking up for women and using her career and platform to positively advocate for basic women’s rights,” Nyakundi said. “The more information that comes out about Amy Coney Barrett the more refined our opinions [become].”

While on the bench, Ginsburg advocated for LGBTQIA+ rights, women’s rights, and equality for all. 

Ginsburg also stressed how gender equality benefitted all, not just women; she helped to amend the IRS Code to make sure that men were entitled to the same caregiving and Social Security rights as women.

Ginsburg once said that, “[a] gender line…helps to keep women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.” 

With this, she championed multiple laws to support equality. Barrett, on the other hand, is feared to set women back years with the Supreme Court confirmation.