The recent confirmation of the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States has aroused much controversy. Appointments to the Supreme Court always do, not least because of the great power that the Court possesses, ie it can strike down legislation as being unconstitutional. The view is that the appointment of Barrett gives the court a 6-3 bias in favour of ‘originalists’, judges who interpret the meaning of the US constitution as it would have been understood at the time it was promulgated. This point of view, which is conservative, tends to produce judgments that Republicans approve of, although that is not always the case.
The big fear of Democrats, who are largely pro-choice, is that the decision in the case of Roe v Wade 410 U.S. 113 (1973), which established a woman’s right to abortion, will be overturned. Such is that fear that President-elect Joe Biden has said he would consider the idea of court packing—adding more judges beyond the customary
