Five things to know about court nominee Amy Coney Barrett

Confirmation hearings begin Monday for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court minee, Amy Coney Barrett. If confirmed, 48-year-old appeals court judge would fill seat of liberal Justice Ruth Ber Ginsburg, who died last month.

Ginsburg's replacement by Barrett, a conservative, would shift balance on court significantly right, from 5-4 in favor of conservatives to 6-3. Here are 5 things to kw about her:

EDUCATION:

Barrett was born in Louisiana and attended Rhodes College, a liberal arts school in Memphis, Tennessee, as an undergruate. She went to law school in Indiana, at tre Dame, on a full scholarship. She'd be only justice on current court t to have attended eir Harvard or Yale for law school.

Barrett was a law professor at tre Dame for 15 years before Trump minated her to become a federal appeals court judge in 2017.

JUDICIAL PHILOSOPHY:

Barret has said that her judicial philosophy is same as that of late Justice Antonin Scalia, whom she worked for after law school and has called a mentor. Scalia described himself an “originalist,” interpreting laws and Constitution based on what y were understood to mean when y were written.

“Judges must apply law as written," Barrett said when she spoke at anuncement of her mination in White House Rose Garden last month. "Judges are t policy makers."

RECORD:

Barrett's short tenure as a judge on 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has led to few teworthy or controversial opinions . She has, however, signed onto several decisions that are sure to be questioned during her confirmation hearing.

In 2018, a three-judge panel ruled that Indiana laws requiring that funerals be held for fetal remains after an abortion or miscarri and banning abortions because of sex, race or developmental disability of a fetus were unconstitutional.

Barrett was among four judges who wanted full court to weigh in and suggested that laws might be constitutional. Last year, after a three-judge panel blocked an Indiana law that would make it harder for a mir to have an abortion without her parents being tified, Barrett voted to have case reheard by full court.

In a dissent in a 2019 gun-rights case, Barrett argued that a conviction for a nviolent felony shouldn’t automatically disqualify someone from owning a gun. Also in 2019 Barrett wrote a unanimous three-judge panel decision in making it easier for men alleged to have committed sexual assaults on campus to challenge proceedings against m.

FAITH:

Barrett would be seventh member of court to eir be Catholic or have been raised Catholic. But she's been somewhat more vocal about her faith than or members, and faith became a flashpoint during her confirmation to be an appeals court judge.

At tre Dame, a Catholic university, Barrett was a member of University Faculty for Life. And in 2006 she signed her name to a newspaper sponsored by an anti-abortion group in which she said she opposed “abortion on demand” and defended “ right to life from fertilization to end of natural life.” Barrett’s membership in a Christian group called People of Praise has also drawn scrutiny as has a law review article she co-authored deces ago that concluded that Catholic judges are “morally precluded from enforcing death penalty.”

At Barrett's 2017 confirmation hearing, Democrats questioned wher her personal views would color her legal judgment, especially with respect to landmark 1973 Roe v. We decision legalizing abortion. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., at one point told Barrett she was concerned “that dogma lives loudly within you.” That remark prompted an outcry from Catholic leers .

FAMILY:

Barrett has joked that president has asked to be ninth justice and that she's used to being in a group of nine: her family.

“While I am a judge I’m better kwn back home as a room parent, carpool driver and birthday party planner,” Barrett said in September.

Barrett and her husband Jesse, a lawyer, are parents of seven young children: Emma, Vivian, Tess, John Peter, Liam, Juliet, and Benjamin. Vivian and John Peter are opted and were born in Haiti. And Benjamin, ir youngest child, has Down syndrome. Barrett has said that Benjamin's “brors and sisters unreservedly identify him as ir favorite sibling.”