US Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett, appointed by Donald Trump, is under scrutiny over her views on the use of the N-word in the workplace.
Barrett has written around 100 opinions in her three-year tenure as a judge on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On Sunday, the Associated Press reported on her most significant judicial opinions. Among those was a workplace discrimination case from last year.
Barrett wrote a legal opinion for a unanimous three-judge panel, surrounding the use of the n-word in the workplace. She wrote that it had not “created a hostile or abusive working environment.” She said the use of the word was not abhorrent and that the plaintiff, Terry Smith, a black man who worked at as a transportation employee, did not show enough evidence for the harassment claims, the Independent reported.
“The n-word is an egregious racial epithet. That said, Smith can’t win simply by proving that the word was uttered. He must also demonstrate that Colbert’s use of this word altered the conditions of his employment and created a hostile or abusive working environment,” Barrett penned.
Apparently, in 2013, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had a different view, that even one use of the n-word was enough to cause damage. “No other word in the English language so powerfully or instantly calls to mind our country’s long and brutal struggle to overcome racism…a single, sufficiently severe incident may create a hostile work environment,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote.
Barrett is the adoptive mother of two Black children; many question how she would feel if someone called her children the racial slur.
Wednesday will make day three of Senate confirmation hearings for Barrett. On Tuesday she was examined on various but major Supreme Court cases that questioned her stance on gay marriage, abortion, and of course, the Affordable Care Act.
Barrett vehemently worked at reassuring the Senate Judiciary Committee that she would rule on issues based on cases prior to it and would not allow her personal views or agendas to deter her from getting in the way of the law.
When it comes to cases where she may have a conflict of interest, however, Barrett did not fully commit to recusing herself from those types of cases. With the upcoming election 21 days away, some Democrats would like for the nominee to recuse herself from all Supreme Court rulings pertaining to the results of the 2020 presidential election.
