Know Your SCOTUS: Justice Amy Coney Barrett is a Radical Religious Cultist

Here's why her charismatic faith is a danger to you and to American democracy.

Then-SCOTUS justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett with former president Trump

In the years leading up to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, far-seeing progressive attorneys and activists begged her to retire. Their concern—a prescient one, given what ultimately came to pass—was that if Ginsburg didn’t step down and let President Obama appoint her successor, the Democratic Party would lose its majority of the U.S. Senate in the upcoming election, and everything she and other progressives had worked so hard for would be lost when Republicans came to power.

As was feared, the midterm election delivered significant losses to the Democratic Party. But in the lead-up to the 2016 election, Ginsburg, like the majority of the country, believed that Hillary Clinton would gain the White House and appoint her successor. Additionally, she expected that Clinton’s choice would be even more progressive than Obama’s might have been. Ginsburg, despite her advanced age and failing health, had her reasons for remaining on the Supreme Court. No one, not even the beloved national icon known as the Notorious RBG, could have foreseen what happened next.

On November 12, 2016, a former game show host and bankruptcy addict named Donald John Trump became president of the United States.

I’d been living in Italy for two years at that point. Battling a six-hour time difference plus mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion, I refused to go to bed until I knew the outcome of the election. It was impossible to believe what my eyes kept telling me about the direction it was going. I had a pirated link to MSNBC up on my laptop and a live electoral map, compliments of The Guardian, open on my iPad. As the sun rose over the Italian countryside, I kept frantically hitting the Refresh button, trying to see the election results every pundit told us to expect: a resounding victory for Hillary Clinton, and an ignominious loss for Trump.

Before my horrified gaze, the live map of the U.S. turned Republican red, one state after another. I thought, there must be a mistake, a glitch in the system. But by 10AM, the awful truth was apparent. I crept into bed next to John, whispered that Trump had won, and as we lay together in stunned silence, it slowly, painfully dawned on us that the America we thought we knew was gone.

In the true spirit of “ya gotta dance with them what brung ya,” Trump made good on his promise to religious fundamentalist supporters to deliver SCOTUS justices that would vote their way on issues like abortion. When arch-conservative Antonin Scalia died on February 13, 2016, while vacationing near Marfa, Texas, Republicans deployed every dirty trick in the book to keep his seat vacant. Their hope was that a Trump victory would guarantee them another conservative judge. Yet even they could not have anticipated the gift that fate was about to bestow. After Trump’s surprise election, the Senate confirmed ultra-rightwing appellate judge Neil Gorsuch by a 54–45 vote on April 7, 2017, with votes from 51 Republicans and 3 Democrats.

Then on June 27, 2018, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, giving Trump yet another opportunity to send a Supreme Court nominee to the Senate for confirmation. In a wildly vituperative Senate hearing echoing Justice Clarence Thomas’s three-ring circus in 1991, credibly accused rapist Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed by a 50–48 vote.

They say lightning always strikes twice, but on September 18, 2020, it struck a third time. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. Before the dirt had barely settled on her coffin, it was announced that Trump intended to nominate 48-year-old law professor Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Barrett was confirmed by a vote of 52-48 and sworn in the next day.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Amid the mayhem of Trump’s shambolic presidency, you are forgiven if you failed to fully comprehend at the time what a dangerous choice she was. Who is Amy Vivian Coney Barrett? And why do I and others believe her overt, cultish religiosity poses a threat to American democracy? After all, does it really matter if a Supreme Court justice belongs to a charismatic religious cult called “People of Praise” whose members purposely live in the same neighborhood, go to the same schools, speak in tongues, defer to the judgment of their fathers and husbands, and who total no more than 1,650 adults nationwide?

In a word, yes.

Before we address the question of how qualified Ms. Barrett is for the position, let’s explore in greater detail her faith community. For starters, what makes a cult a “cult?”

Based on research from leading experts who study brainwashing, “BITE” stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control. These are the signatures of a cult.

1. A group member dictates where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates with, or isolates him or her from others. Justice Barrett was raised in the same religious community that she’s raising her own family. Members often reside in the houses of other members. Going to non-secular schools is widely frowned upon, even forbidden, and access to non-cult sources of information (TV, internet, former members, etc.) is mostly done under supervision. People of Praise are deeply involved in each other’s lives and decisions.
   

   “The community is more important than anything else in your life,” former member Ailish Byrne told The New York Times. “It’s a whole different level than being a member of a church.”
   

2. A cult uses loaded language and requires members to internalize the group's doctrine as truth. Where does People of Praise appear in that rubric? People of Praise is technically not a church. Members attend Catholic services elsewhere and then reconvene for private People of Praise worship on Sunday afternoons. Together, they recite a 181-word covenant that reads, in part, “We will serve one another and the community as a whole in all needs: spiritual, material, financial.” Salaries are heavily tithed.
   
   Male leaders are called “heads”, in reference to their authority as heads of households. Until quite recently, women were referred to as “handmaids”. That changed when the term became associated with the TV adaption of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. Now, they are simply called “women” or “women leaders”.
   

3. A cult teaches emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt, etc. One of the most remarkable things about Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing was her near-glacial composure. Compared to the sweaty, tearful, disheveled mess that fellow justice Brett Kavanaugh made of his confirmation hearing, Barrett was positively Vulcan. Clearly possessed of a formidable intellect, she displayed no sign of emotion—none—to the point where it was chilling to watch her. Did that emotional self-control come naturally or was it the byproduct of years of indoctrination?
   

4. Families are often large within the People of Praise community. Justice Barrett comes from a family of seven children and has seven children herself, two adopted from Haiti, and one child with Down Syndrome. It is telling that the vast majority of children raised within the community leave it when they become adults. Equally cult-like is the fact that “heads” determine who you date and who you marry. No one is allowed to marry outside of the People of Praise community. Justice Barrett’s own husband, Jesse Barrett, is a legacy member.

One of the more troubling aspects of Justice Barrett’s association with the People of Praise is that she has never spoken publicly about her involvement with the group. Extreme measures have been taken to memory-hole any trace of her from the People of Praise website and magazine, Vine and Branches. But a membership directory obtained by The New York Times lists her name as one of 11 local leaders in her hometown of South Bend, Indiana. She also served on the board of Trinity School, a private school that was started by and remains closely associated with the People of Praise.

So, what are the core tenets of this cult?

One man, one woman marriages are the only acceptable unions in the eyes of the People of Praise. The community is “quiver-full”, meaning the bearing of many children is a sacred duty and contraception is forbidden. Not surprisingly, Barrett has fought efforts to ensure that women have access to birth control. Her ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an abortion ban in nearly half the United States, is now part of the judicial record.

But she’s gone even further than that, fighting to undermine healthcare for millions of Americans covered under the Affordable Care Act, publicly criticizing Chief Justice Roberts for his decision to uphold that law. As a judge, Barrett sided against an African-American worker who had been shuttled off to another store because of a company’s policy of segregating their employees. To Barrett, the company’s “separate-but-equal” arrangement was perfectly acceptable. She also joined a ruling that sided against the Army Corps of Engineers who were attempting to protect wetlands in Illinois under the Clean Water Act. More than once, she has dismissed workers’ unfair denial of benefits.

Justice Barrett was raised in a religious community, went to religious schools, and got a full ride to Notre Dame Law School, which is a Catholic university, ranked first in her class with a Juris Doctor summa cum laude.

Judge Barrett with Shannon Papin, a former roommate, at their graduation from Rhodes College in 1994.

Barrett quickly ascended the ranks not just because of her remarkable intellect and flawless academic record, but her Catholic affiliations. In an obvious attempt to groom her for the Court, fellow-Catholic Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Barrett to serve on the Advisory Committee for the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. She also did her judicial clerkship for former justice (and evangelical Catholic) Antonin Scalia.

White House counsel Don McGahn, who recommended Barrett for the Supreme Court and who had an outsized role in reshaping federal policy on gay and transgender rights, immigration, abortion, guns and religion is … you guessed it … an evangelical Catholic.

Is it a coincidence that all five SCOTUS justices who voted to overturn a woman’s right to choose are hardliner evangelical Catholics—including Justice Clarence Thomas?

This is what happens when we fail to enforce our Constitutional right to separation of church and state. We get a very real form of sharia law.

It is unlikely Justice Barrett will be removed from her position at the Supreme Court. She is a relatively young woman, which means she could potentially serve thirty or forty years on the Bench. Since there is no cap on the number of justices we are allowed to appoint to the Supreme Court, an expansion of the Court could solve the problems posed by religious extremists. But it is only a temporary solution, even if Biden were able to effect it (unlikely, given obstructionism within his own Party). Who among us can guarantee that we wouldn’t eventually end up with the same problem only on a bigger scale?

Our only hope is to pack our legislative and executive branches with as many non-religious lawmakers as possible. When one branch of government is out of balance, the other two must recalibrate the scales.

Vote like your life depends on it this midterm.

In every way possible, it does.

These are major issues, and I want to hear your thoughts. Please leave your thoughts in the comments sections below.

Copyright © 2022 Stacey Eskelin