Notorious ACB? No and no. Trump’s nominee is no RBG.
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By Robin Givhan,
Barrett is his Ginsburg, he would have the country believe, even if Barrett is a textualist and the polar opposite of the liberal icon in judicial philosophy. And Trump gamely talked her up. Barrett graduated first in her law school class at Notre Dame, the president boasted. A law professor, he said, once gave her a letter of recommendation that simply read: “Amy Coney is the best student I ever had.”
No, Barrett herself is not groundbreaking. But the circumstances of her nomination are certainly unprecedented.
She is the peg who fits the hole. A conservative. A woman. A conservative woman who may be willing to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Ginsburg, the woman she would replace, set a new standard. Her gravitas was part of her power. Her age, 87, spoke to her experience and wisdom. She was distinguished — a grand word that all too often is reserved for men in the winter of their lives.
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