Jentezen Franklin, pro-life groups praise confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett
Conservative leaders and prominent evangelical pastors praised the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett as an associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday evening, describing her as a fair and highly qualified voice to join the bench.
“From Alaska to Florida, Students for Life and SFLAction has been knocking on doors and making calls reminding Americans to vote Pro-Life first, especially as we consider the implications of just who gets to pick the judges for the generations to come. Our tour was expanded to embrace the nomination of Judge Barrett because she represents the future of a Court that puts the law over private agendas,” said Students for Life of America and SFLAction President Kristan Hawkins in a statement celebrating the 52-48 U.S. Senate vote to confirming Barrett.
They added, “Today is the culmination of years of work, decades of work, seeking to nominate justices to the Supreme Court who will protect life in law. Judge Barrett is a brilliant jurist who will bring a fresh perspective to the law for years to come.”
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Barrett, who is a devout "Catholic Pentecostal" and mother of seven, was praised by Jentezen Franklin, senior pastor of the multi-campus Free Chapel Church in Gainesville, Georgia, as a “spectacular role model” for young girls including his own daughters.
“The Senate has confirmed a fair, honorable, and highly qualified woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Amy Coney Barrett is a spectacular role model for my own daughters — and for young girls across the country — who aspire to live with a deep commitment to faith in God, a profound love for this blessed nation of ours, and who desire to guarantee liberty and justice for all,” Franklin said in a statement to The Christian Post. “My family and I are praying for her. As she has with every responsibility given to her thus far, we are confident she will approach her new position with wisdom and humility.”
Live Action founder and President Lila Rose celebrated Barrett’s addition to the bench as a fulfilment of President Donald Trump’s promise to put “pro-life justices on the Court.” Barrett, she said, is a constitutional originalist, and justices who share this philosophy have historically interpreted the Constitution as not including a right to abortion.
“I am hopeful that Justice Amy Coney Barrett, when given the opportunity, will acknowledge the obvious: there is absolutely no right to kill children found in the Constitution. The science is crystal clear: a human life in the womb is just as human as a life outside of the womb. The Constitution states that each of us must be given equal treatment under the law, and this includes children in the womb,” Rose said in a statement to CP.
“Abortion is the greatest civil and human rights battle of our day. Justices have played a role in preserving or restoring the rights and dignity of oppressed people groups throughout America’s history. Overruling Roe v. Wade and acknowledging the preborn child’s constitutional right to life would be a crucial step toward making abortion unthinkable and finally granting the preborn child the legal protection she deserves. When given the opportunity, we hope that Justice Barrett will rule as if tens of millions of children’s lives depended on it — because they do,” she added.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel acknowledged in a statement that Barrett’s confirmation is the president’s delivery on his promise.
"Judge Amy Coney Barrett will now be Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. That is another Promise Made and Promise Kept under President Trump. All Americans will be well served by Justice Barrett’s fidelity to the rule of law and her commitment to interpreting the Constitution as written in the decisions that will come before her as a member of the high court,” McDaniel stated to CP.
"Four years ago voters elected Donald Trump as their president in large part because of his promise to appoint qualified constitutionalists, and in eight days Americans are going to vote for more justices like Amy Coney Barrett by re-electing President Trump along with Republicans up and down the ballot," she added.
Critics of Barrett’s confirmation, such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State President and CEO Rachel Laser, did not celebrate her filling the seat on the bench recently vacated by the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“The Trump administration and Senate Republicans continued their assault on the constitutionally guaranteed right of religious freedom with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. Barrett’s record, speeches, writing and professional affiliations have all demonstrated hostility to the separation of religion and government, which protects every American’s right to believe as we choose, as long as we don’t harm others,” Laser said in a statement.
“Barrett has made clear that rather than honoring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legacy, she will join Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, who along with Justices Thomas and Alito, are trying – in Barrett’s words – to ‘better organize’ religious freedom." Laser contends that it will be used "as a sword ... to harm others, rather than as the shield the Constitution intended it to be.”
Laser added that she found Barrett’s record on church-state separation “deeply problematic.”
“She has shown that she would allow claims of religious freedom to be misused to harm women, LGBTQ people, religious minorities and the nonreligious, among many others. Her affiliations with organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom and the Becket Fund demonstrate that she supports cloaking a conservative political agenda in the disguise of religious freedom,” Laser argued. “The U.S. Supreme Court’s duty is to protect our constitutional rights – and that certainly includes religious freedom. Americans United, the only organization dedicated solely to defending the separation of religion and government for the past 73 years, will continue to fight for an America that achieves its great promise of religious freedom for all.”
Jeff Hunt, director of The Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that does not endorse or oppose any candidate or political party for public office, insisted, however, that Barrett’s confirmation is a win for Americans.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has become too political. The original intent of the Constitution is that the Court is to interpret laws, not write them. Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation is a win for the American people who support our country’s founding principles of limited government, judicial restraint, separation of powers, and justice for all,” he said.
