Amy Coney Barrett, Handmaid

Amy Coney Barrett, Drawing by Nicole Jeffords.

There’s no doubt that Amy Coney Barrett has had an extremely impressive career. Top scholar, teacher, lawyer, judge, she has a reputation for being even-handed and just. As a nominee to the Supreme Court, her training, experience, and grasp of the law would seem to make her a perfect candidate. Except for two things: she is a religious Catholic with a faith so deep it could easily sway her decisions, and she has, for most of her life, been a member of a charismatic Christian group called People of Praise. A group with over 1700 members in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, that believes in prophesy, speaking in tongues, faith healing, and shared religious communities.

Although women are encouraged to rise in their professions, People of Praise espouses a male-dominated hierarchy — wives subservient to husbands. A background like that is worrisome in a judge. Amy Coney Barrett is opposed to abortion (she’s even taken out newspaper ads on the subject), which is alarming since the majority of American women want access to legal abortion; with a more conservative court access may be removed. Amy Coney Barrett, once a “handmaid” in her charismatic group, is no doubt a fine, principled person, but one has to wonder why a person of such high values would agree to go through the process of being confirmed to the highest court of the land at a time when people have already begun voting in a presidential election that is only 22 days away. A truly honorable person would do what is fair and wait.