Teen Vogue: ‘Amy Coney Barrett Could Sit on the Supreme Court for Decades If Confirmed’

As this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court kicked off, Teen Vogue published an op-ed Monday authored by Alanna Miller, a volunteer leader with the Duke University Students Demand Action chapter, and a 2020 member of the Students Demand Action National Advisory Board. In the piece, Miller writes:

“Two years ago, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to take action. In February 2018, I watched along with the rest of the country the coverage of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. By November, I was 18 and registering any and all voters at my high school to participate in the midterm elections. We saw a chance to change the inaction we had seen on gun violence for years. 

Two years later, our national conversation on gun violence has changed for the better. In that time, 15 states have passed extreme risk laws, which created a way to act when there are clear warning signs that someone with firearms poses a risk to themselves or others, as was the case before the shooting in Parkland. Last year, voters in Virginia flipped control of the state legislature in an election in which gun safety was a top issue, ushering in a new gun sense majority that went on to require background checks on all gun sales and enact an extreme risk law. And this year across the country, candidates are running on gun safety, responding to voters’ demands for leaders who will take action. 

But Barrett’s nomination threatens all of that progress. Barrett has made clear she has an extreme and dangerous view of the Second Amendment, asserting that even those convicted of a serious felony should be permitted to own guns. Her confirmation could put almost every common sense gun law at risk, from background checks to extreme risk laws. These laws have been upheld time and time again, but like President Donald Trump’s past two nominees, Judge Barrett’s track record suggests she’s eager to overturn this consensus and side with the gun lobby over public safety.”

Miller also details what is at stake with the confirmation of Judge Barrett:

“…for us, this nomination is about life and death.

This Supreme Court justice will likely sit on the bench for more than half our lives, helping to decide whether we are safe from gun violence when we go to school, whether we can make decisions about our own bodies, whether we can grow up on a healthy planet with clean air to breathe, and more. We deserve a say in who picks them.”

Read the full op-ed here. A more detailed analysis of the danger of this confirmation can be found in this memo detailing Judge Barrett’s extreme positions on the Second Amendment, this memo on how this Supreme Court confirmation could impact gun safety in the U.S. Also, see this chart showing which states’ gun safety laws are at risk.