The last best hope for Supreme Court liberals: Amy Coney Barrett

So far it is her method, not bottom-line votes, that primarily sets this Trump appointee apart.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett stands apart. She is the only former full-time law professor on the right wing. And she differs from her five fellow conservatives for the obvious reason that she is the sole woman in their bloc, a mother of seven who peppers her hypotheticals with references to ambitious babysitters and delivered meal kits. But perhaps most important for the court amid today’s polarization, she is the only one of the conservatives who never served in the top echelons of a Republican administration. She is less likely to echo the GOP political agenda in her questions during oral arguments or reasoning in her written decisions. Her views of executive power, as in Donald Trump’s immunity case last July, are tempered. And that is why Barrett has become the best hope for what remains of the liberal wing, particularly after Trump’s election victory. Liberals on and off the bench see Barrett as someone who may provide some equilibrium to a court remaking the law in America, possibly able with her legalistic ways to secure a cross-ideological majority for moderation. As Trump returns to the White House, the Supreme Court may be even more positioned to check the balance of powers. He has vowed to bring a new level of conservative muscle to the executive branch. Republicans, meanwhile, regained the Senate in Tuesday’s elections and may hold onto the House of Representatives, where several races are yet to be called.