President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Amy Coney Barret to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Saturday for the U.S. Supreme Court. She will be the youngest justice on the bench at age 48 and her nomination now creates a 6-3 conservative-leaning majority on the Court.

Barrett was appointed as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2017 by President Donald Trump. She spent 22 years clerking for the late Justice Antonin Scalia and had been denoted by her fellow clerks as his “favorite.”

Barrett graduated from Notre Dame with a Juris Doctor summa cum laude and returned as a law professor teaching civil law procedure, constitutional law and statutory interpretation. Barrett’s scholarships have focused on originalism. 

“It is my honor to nominate one of the most brilliant and gifted legal minds to the Supreme Court, she is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty to the Constitution,” Trump said during his announcement Saturday in the rose garden. 

Now Barret will follow through a series of hearings before the Senate will make their vote. The process of nominating a justice can take serval months, but the Republicans will remain in control of the Senate at least until Jan. 3.

“Amy Coney Barrett will decide cases based on the text of the constitution as written, as Amy Coney Barrett has said, being a Judge takes courage,” Trump said. “You are not there to decide cases as you may prefer, you are there to do your duty and follow the law where ever it may take you. That is exactly what Judge Barrett will do on the U.S. Supreme Court.”

There are mixed opinions regarding nomination from both Democrats and Republicans. While Senate Majority leader, Mitch McConnell is determined to fill the seat while the election is just around the corner some Republicans disagree. 

GOP Senators, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins both stated the Senate should not move forward with the appointment until after the election. U.S. Senator Mitt Romeny a frequent critic of Trump announced he supported.

During the announcement, Trump ensured viewers that the confirmation should be “straight forward and prompt” and non-controversial. This may already not be the case, prior to her passing Ginsburg requested her seat not be replaced until a new president is installed.

A survey found 57 percent favored delaying the process until after the election while 38 percent said the seat should be filled before the election, according to Politico. Democrats have concerns Barrett will pose a threat to rulings such as Roe v. Wade. During Barrett’s appointment to the court of appeals in 2017, she told senators Roe’s decision is a settled precedent.

Dirk Deam, a teaching professor in the political science department, said this is called the stare decisis which is the notion of leaving past court opinions alone in the sense that law needs to be stable. 

This is consistent with common-sense or judicial conservatism, which means to be careful and cautious, this differs from the political ideology of conservatism Republicans typically refer to. Deam said judicial conservatism believes in strict construction which is referring to original texts when deciding on court opinions.

Deam said justices are not supposed to be persuaded by policy or partisan politics and it wasn’t until more recently that the court became a war between the parties. 

Roe v. Wade is nearing on being a 50-year precedent. The decision was challenged in 1992 but failed, Deam said this was because of the respect of precedent, and that judicial conservatism and conservatism are not necessarily in sync.  

“We can’t really change the law because there is really no good legal reason to change what Roe v. Wade established,” Deam said. “And so we have to leave it alone, people have based their lives and choices on that frame of law and you just can’t go messing with it because you want to.”

Barrett, has focused on the idea of originalism which is the concept of interpretation of the Constitution and what the founding fathers intended the words to mean, opposed to strict constructionism which is based on the literal language of the Constitution Deam said. 

“We call her (Barrett) a conservative but she is actually not, it would be more activist if you wanted to change the law,” Deam said. “When Democrats or liberals want to hold on to Roe v. Wade, that is classic judicial conservatism and the Republicans and the judicial nominees who want to change it, that is classic judicial activism or liberalism.”

Barrett’s beliefs are in line with Scalia who also considered himself an originalist. Deam said this originalism is hard to apply to issues such as abortion or healthcare because these issues did not exist during the founding fathers’ time.  

“Since that (what originalism is) is not known well for many commentators it ends up being sort of a license to do whatever you want to,” Deam said. “How you would apply to something like that to abortion and the affordable care act since the founders weren’t around for that it is really hard to know, and that is kind of the sneaky opportunism of the originalist position. It sounds like it is this principled, established, conservative frame of mind but it isn’t really strict construction. It doesn’t work from the words it works from this supposed analysis of what the founders would intend.”

Deam said he is not surprised by the nomination, his main concern is rushing the decision and it is in the nature of the Senate to be cautious. This is why the Senators serve six-year terms to avoid responding to political whims.

“It is exceedingly suspect, last weekend it was not even clear who the nominee was going to be and Republicans were saying they were already going to vote for them,” Deam said. “This is exactly opposite of what you would expect the Senate to do, you would expect the Senate to be cautious and prudent and careful and of course they are not going to be.”