Ainsworth urges U.S. Senate to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to SCOTUS

Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth (R-AL) is strongly backing Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald J. Trump’s nominee to fill the Supreme Court of the United States seat vacated by the passing of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

On Monday, Ainsworth joined fellow members of the Republican Lieutenant Governors Association (RLGA), a caucus of the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), in sending a letter to U.S. Senate leadership in support of Barrett.

Ainsworth in a statement to Yellowhammer News said, “Judge Amy Coney Barrett understands that the role of a Supreme Court justice is to interpret the Constitution as our founding fathers intended and not to invent new laws from thin air.”

“Her defense of the Second Amendment, her opposition to abortion on demand, and her support for religious freedoms coincide with the traditional beliefs and conservative values that most Alabamians hold close,” he continued. “Even those who disagree with her judicial philosophy admit that Judge Barrett is a brilliant legal scholar and imminently qualified to sit on the bench. I am proud to add my name to the list of those who support President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.”

Barrett currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She clerked for the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, as well as Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Before and while serving on the federal bench, she was a professor of law at Notre Dame Law School. She graduated at the top of her class from the same school.

The RLGA letter began, “As lieutenant governors, we applaud President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States and strongly encourage the United States Senate to swiftly confirm her appointment. Our request is not founded on partisan affiliation. Rather, we agree that Judge Barrett’s long record of upholding the Constitution and defending the rule of law make her an exceedingly qualified candidate to serve on our nation’s highest court.”

The letter concluded as follows:

President Trump’s decision to fulfill his duty to the American people by putting forward a Supreme Court nominee prior to upcoming elections follows a longstanding precedent of election year confirmations moving forward when the president and Senate majority are in partisan alignment. In fact, eight Supreme Court justices in our nation’s history have been confirmed under similar election year circumstances. President Trump’s appointment – a core constitutional responsibility of a president – should also come with little surprise, given the transparency both he and Senate Republican leaders have demonstrated when asked publicly whether they would act to fill the seat if a vacancy arose this year. President Trump even released and later updated a list of potential Supreme Court nominees during his campaign for president. Americans elected him with the expectation that he would put forth a nominee from that list – and he’s done exactly that.

We hope that under your leadership, the U.S. Senate will move quickly to confirm Judge Barrett, and hope that the nomination process will proceed without the vitriol of past confirmations. It is critical that Americans exercise their right to vote with total confidence that a full, nine-member Court could examine any challenges to elections results without the potential of a tie vote. We are confident that upon her confirmation, she will continue to exercise judicial restraint, interpret the law as its written, and respect the Constitution as it was originally laid out by our Framers.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall last week joined a coalition of 22 state attorneys general in sending a letter to the U.S. Senate urging the body to immediately hold a hearing and then promptly vote to confirm Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn