Friday, July 6, 2018

EXTRA: Will Chicago-based federal judge get Supreme Court appointment?

It seems there are those inclined to believe that a federal appeals court judge currently based in the Dirksen Building will soon be on her way to Washington for the (literal) job of a lifetime – an appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.

BARRETT: A Chicago-based Hoosier for high ct
Both of the Chicago metro newspapers on Friday went with the notion that Justice Amy Coney Barrett is a very real possibility for President Donald J. Trump to choose for the post that replaces Anthony Kennedy – who is retiring now that he’s reached his 80s in age.

BARRETT (WHOM SOME have taken to nicknaming the “Conenator” to try to make her sound tough) is far from being a part of the legal establishment of Chicago. She only got her judicial appointment last year (she’s only 46 now), and from none other than President Trump himself.

Meaning she’s someone who hasn’t had a chance to become “tainted” by being exposed to courts based in Chicago or dealing with attorneys who work her.

Just the perfect pick for someone with the mentality that everything in Chicago is somehow tainted. If anything, it would be Trump’s way of delivering a smack across the forehead to the establishment of this city.

He literally picks someone who, in terms of seniority, is at the bottom (or close to it) of judges who work in Chicago and offers her the post of being on the court that ultimately oversees the nation’s whole legal system.

THE FACT THAT she’s Catholic, but part of the People of Praise group that integrates elements of other religious faiths that hard-core Catholics would think of as blasphemous, likely makes her all the more appealing to the kind of people who want Trump (an extremely vocal minority of our society) to stack the Supreme Court in ways that will last for decades. While scaring those senseless those who care about abortion or women in general.

For the record, Barrett isn’t one of those judges who came out of Chicago-Kent or DePaul law schools and likely has little ambition beyond their judicial post in Chicago. She’s a graduate of Notre Dame, a long-time faculty member of the law school, and still lives in South Bend, Ind.

Some wonder if her religious faith is so intense that she’s bound to use it to influence her on any future high court ruling that regards Roe v. Wade – the Supreme Court case of more than four decades ago that legitimized abortion and which some are determined to have the court overturn.

I’m sure on a certain level, a Barrett appointment (if it really happens) would be Trump at his most sarcastic and cynical. Particularly if it puts someone with Indiana roots in a position of overseeing Chicago and Illinois.

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