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Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed as Supreme Court justice.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in Tuesday, just one day after her confirmation and one week before Election Day.

Justice Barrett, 48, takes the seat previously held by longtime Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18 of complications related to metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Justice Barrett’s journey to the high court has been a contentious one, with conservatives hailing her stance as a constitutional originalist and religious conservative, and liberals decrying her involvement with a conservative Catholic congregation and her refusal to answer many questions during her confirmation hearings.

President Trump praised her Monday night ahead of the new Supreme Court justice’s swearing-in ceremony, CNN reported.

“Justice Barrett made clear she will issue rulings based solely upon a faithful reading of the law and the Constitution as written not legislate from the bench,” Trump said.

The Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Justice Barrett on Monday with a 52-48 vote that fell almost perfectly along party lines, according to CNN.

With Justice Barrett’s confirmation, the Supreme Court now has a 6-3 conservative majority; the high court had a 5-4 conservative majority during Justice Ginsberg’s term. 

Though she’s just been sworn in as the newest Supreme Court justice, she will begin weighing in on divisive cases almost immediately.

2020 Election

President Donald Trump nominated Barrett for the Supreme Court just days after Justice Ginsburg’s death, promising to push the confirmation through so all nine seats would be filled in anticipation of contested presidential election results.

Among the first cases Justice Barrett and the other Supreme Court justices will consider after her confirmation deals with appeals from the Trump campaign and Republicans to shorten absentee ballot deadlines in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, The Associated Press reported.

Luzerne County in Pennsylvania filed legal papers Tuesday arguing Justice Barrett should not take part in the Pennsylvania case, according to The Associated Press.

During her confirmation hearings, Justice Barrett stated several times that she had made no promises to anyone at the White House about how she would rule on any election results case that came before the Supreme Court.

Reproductive Rights

Pro-choice advocates have expressed concern about the possibility of a case coming before the current panel of Supreme Court justices that could overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade female reproductive rights decision.

Justice Barrett has faced close scrutiny due to her affiliations that “vigorously oppose” abortion, such as Faculty for Life, an anti-abortion group at the University of Notre Dame, where Justice Barrett taught.

While Justice Barrett has not said she would specifically seek to reverse Roe, she did say during her confirmation hearings that she does not consider the case to be a “super-precedent,” according to NPR.

When asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar why she doesn’t consider Roe a super-precedent, Barrett said such cases are defined as those that are “so well settled that no political actors and no people seriously push for their overruling.”

“And I’m answering a lot of questions about Roe,” she said, “which I think indicates that Roe doesn’t fall in that category.”

Justice Barrett could be called upon as early as Friday to weigh in on an abortion rights case, according to The Associated Press.

The case involves Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban and the state’s appeal of lower court rulings invalidating it.

In addition, Pittsburgh abortion opponents are challenging a “bubble zone” that prevents protesters from getting too close to clinics that provide abortions, The Associated Press reported.

Consumer Interests

Justice Barrett has heard a lot of cases involving consumer protections during her time as a judge. But some consumer advocate groups say her track record is less than stellar.

An analysis by Accountable.us revealed that during Justice Barrett’s time with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, she sided with corporations 76% of the time.

These cases involved a range of issues, from alleged discrimination and warranty violations to employee wage disputes and Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations.

Alliance for Justice also reported several instances of cases in which Justice Barrett has ruled against consumers.

In one such case, a woman was forced to have a hysterectomy to remove a piece that had broken off her intrauterine device (IUD) and become lodged in her uterus.

According to Alliance for Justice, Barrett agreed with the district court ruling that the plaintiff’s injury wasn’t “within the understanding of a lay person,” and required expert testimony.

In another case, Alliance for Justice reported, Judge Barrett refused to reconsider a decision ruling that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wasn’t able to seek restitution for consumer fraud victims — a decision that overturned precedent.

Because of this decision, the Court vacated a $5 million judgment for consumers in a case against a credit-monitoring company.

Amy Coney Barret was confirmed as Supreme Court justice.LGBTQ Protections

During her confirmation hearings, Justice Barrett spoke many times about respecting legal precedents and super-precedents.

However, just as she refused to call Roe v. Wade a super-precedent, she likewise stopped short of calling the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision a super-precedent, leaving LGBTQ activists worried, according to The Washington Post. 

The Supreme Court justices’ decision in Obergefell guaranteed that same-sex couples have the same right to marry as opposite-sex couples.

One case LGBTQ advocates are monitoring is Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The case, scheduled to be heard the day after Election Day, involves a religious adoption agency that is seeking the right to turn away LGBTQ couples.

Counsel for the city, who also worked on Obergefell, said the Supreme Court could create a precedent allowing taxpayer-funded organizations to legally discriminate.

Affordable Care Act

Ahead of Barrett’s confirmation vote, the National Consumers League (NCL) said it had some misgivings about the potential Supreme Court justice and the status of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), another hot topic at her hearings.

“Although Coney Barrett was reticent during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, her record serves as a warning about how she will come down on a host of consumer health issues,” the NCL said in a press release.

Justice Barrett has criticized Chief Justice John Roberts’ 2012 opinion and decision upholding the ACA, writing that he “pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.”

Because of this publicly-expressed position, Democrats fear her confirmation as Supreme Court justice is death knell for the ACA. 

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the ACA on Nov. 10.

What do you think of the new Supreme Court justice? Give us your thoughts in the comments.

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10 thoughts onWhat Does Amy Coney Barrett’s Confirmation Mean For Consumers?

  1. CINDY J BRIGGS says:

    She should not have been sworn in to begin with.

  2. Cindy J Briggs says:

    She should not have been sworn in to begin with. please add me.

  3. sarah barnes says:

    Add me,don’t think she going to b honest

  4. CATHY ATWOOD says:

    I agree, I am waiting to see how she handles some of the consumer cases.

  5. Pamela says:

    In all honesty, this should not be a political site! If you are a Democrat or a Republican, should have no place here…only bad business deals should be shown.

  6. Becky morris says:

    Add plz

  7. Reginald king says:

    She’s not a fair person, add me

    1. Pamela says:

      You are full of shit! She is the most fair judge that could have been nominated.

  8. Lisa king says:

    Add me she’s not for the people, but big companies.

  9. Mr. Vale Karlski says:

    ACAIs a tax as justice Roberts admitted and many have lost their health insurance due to skyrocketing premiums and deductibles. I trust no lawyer or Judge 100% nor should anyone else. Let’s wait and see how justice Barrett rules on some of these consumer cases before we diminish her.

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