Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who President Donald Trump is reportedly considering to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, is a Catholic mother of seven who once told law students: “your fundamental purpose in life is not to be a lawyer, but to know, love and serve God.”

{snip}

“I’m saving her for Ginsburg,” Trump said of Barrett in 2019, Axios reported.

She’s Currently a Federal Appellate Judge

Trump appointed Barrett to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017, according to the New York Times. Her confirmation hearings gained national attention when Democratic lawmakers questioned her about her Catholic beliefs, suggesting that Barrett’s Catholicism made her unfit to serve as a judge.

{snip}

She Taught Law at the University of Notre Dame

Barrett went to law school at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and graduated summa cum laude in 1997. She returned to Notre Dame in 2002 to teach federal courts, constitutional law and statutory interpretation, and was named a professor of law in 2010, according to SCOTUSblog.

She would go on to become the Diane and M.O Research Chair of Law and received a “distinguished professor of the year” award in 2010 and 2016. During her time at Notre Dame, Barrett joined the conservative legal group, the Federalist Society, and signed a statement of protest against former President Barack Obama’s administration for forcing employers to provide birth control against their religious beliefs.

{snip}

She’s a Devout Catholic

The potential Supreme Court nominee has drawn attention from both the left and right for her devotion to the Roman Catholic faith.

{snip}

Filmmaker Arlen Parsa also called Barrett a “Catholic extremist with 7 children” in a since deleted tweet, hitting Barrett for her pro-life views {snip}

{snip}

She Has Seven Children

Barrett was born into a family of seven children and now has seven children herself — five biological and two adopted from Haiti, according to Newsweek. She met her husband, Jesse Barrett, a federal prosecutor in Indiana, at Notre Dame Law School, the publication reported.

{snip}

She does not often speak about her family, according to Newsweek, but she discussed them during her 2017 confirmation hearing which her daughters Emma, Vivian, and Tess attended while her other four children stayed home “with friends and fearless babysitters,” as Barrett put it.

She Adopted Two Children from Haiti

“Emma is 16. The first apple of our eye,” Barrett said at the 2017 hearing, according to Newsweek. “Vivian, directly next to Emma, is 13. Vivian is our miracle. Vivian joined our family—she was born in Haiti and she came home when she was 14 months old, and she weighed 11 pounds and she was so weak we were told she might never walk normally or speak. Today Vivian is a track star, and I assure you she has no trouble talking.”

Her daughter Tess was also 13 years old in 2017, and during the hearing Barrett described her as “one of the most compassionate and determined people that I know.”

“John Peter is 10, and like Vivian, he was born in Haiti,” Barrett said during the hearing. “He joined our family in 2010 when he was 3 years old after the devastating earthquake in Haiti.”

She continued: “Liam is 8. Typically curious 8-year-old. And Juliet is our spunky 6-year-old.”

Her Youngest Child Has Down Syndrome

The youngest Barrett has Downs syndrome, which Barrett learned during prenatal testing, according to the Times. Many parents choose to abort when they discover the unborn baby has Downs syndrome, but Barrett did not. She carries Benjamin piggyback down the stairs every morning, the Times reported.

“Benjamin, our youngest, is 5,” she said at the 2017 hearing, “and Benjamin has special needs, and that presents unique challenges for all of us. But I think all you need to know about Benjamin’s place in the family is summed up by the fact the other children unreservedly identify him as their favorite sibling.”

It’s Rumored She Could Help Overturn Roe v. Wade

Barrett’s potential nomination to the Supreme Court to replace Ginsburg has alarmed Democratic lawmakers and abortion advocates who fear that adding Barrett to the bench may result in overturning Roe v. Wade.

“Amy Coney Barrett meets Donald Trump’s two main litmus tests: She has made clear she would invalidate the (Affordable Care Act) and take health care away from millions of people and undermine a woman’s reproductive freedom,” Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice, told the Times.

{snip}