Amy Coney Barrett may have won the partisan vote today to be appointed Supreme Court Justice to replace RBG, but she will always be in the shadow of RBG. Although they have some things in common, there is no way that Amy Coney Barrett is in the same league as RBG, who was a major pioneer in the legal field of gender discrimination.
Important or not, the facts are that RBG went to law school at Harvard. Amy Coney Barrett went to Notre Dame's law school. Harvard is ranked #2 among law schools; Notre Dame is #24. https://www.velocitylsat.com/resources/top-law-schools They both graduated at the top of their class.
Both women were law professors, RBG at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School (ranked #4 in top law schools) teaching civil procedure. Barrett taught at her alma mater, Notre Dame Law School. Like RBG, she also taught civil procedure. In addition, Barrett taught constitutional law and statutory interpretation.
Both women served as circuit court judges, RBG for 13 years on the DC Circuit Appeals Court from 1980-1993; Amy Coney Barrett for three years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, since 2017.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued and won six cases before the U.S. Supreme Court on gender discrimination from 1973 to 1976, making strategic gains for women's rights. I don't believe that Amy Coney Barrett has ever personally argued a case before the Supreme Court, although much is made of her working as a law clerk for Antonin Scalia when he represented George W. Bush, Jr. in the Supreme Court decision that made him president. For those of us who think that the Supreme Court had no business deciding who was our president, that is not a point in her favor.
Although it's true that Amy Coney Barrett is the first woman to serve on the Seventh Circuit from Indiana, that seems to be the only mark of distinction. Compare this to the career achievements of RBG before her appointment to become a Supreme Court Judge.:
1. Ruth Bader Ginsburg volunteered as an attorney at the ACLU, and then served as general counsel and as a director on their Board of Directors.
2. RBG co-founded the Women's Rights Law Reporter, the first law journal in the U.S. to focus exclusively on women's rights.
3. She became the first tenured female professor at Columbia Law School.
4. Ginsburg co-authored the first law school casebook on sex discrimination.
5. Ruth Bader Ginsburg co-founded the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU in 1972. She attained a reputation as a skilled oral advocate, and her work led directly to the end of gender discrimination in many areas of the law.
Amy Coney Barrett, so far in her career, comparing it to the early career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has not been exactly a trailblazer for human rights. She is known for being dogmatic and conservative, and usually favors big business over workers.
Amy Coney Barrett has a brilliant legal mind, which I readily admit after having read an academic paper she wrote. However, I don't anticipate that she will do anything so remarkable as RBG did that earned her the moniker, the Notorious RBG.
I don't foresee that Amy Coney Barrett will make any contribution to the advancement of our society in particular. She may eventually move more to the center with all the pressures that will come to bear on her as a Supreme Court Judge, and she may even make some sound decisions. However, it is my opinion that she will forever be cast in the shadow of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I most certainly would like to be wrong about this, and hope that she will indeed distinguish herself.
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