A pivotal Wednesday Supreme Court hearing on the limits of Donald Trump’s immigration policies will contain a wild card in the form of how Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett will vote due to personal considerations.
According to a report from the Washington Post, the case in question will dig deep into Donald Trump’s efforts to end temporary immigration protections for Haitians and if it holds up under constitutional scrutiny.
For Barrett, she will have to weigh her personal feelings when deciding which side of the argument she agrees with.
The justice and her husband, Jesse, adopted a child from Haiti in part because, as Barrett later recounted, “There were so many children in need," the Post is reporting before adding, "Vivian, then 14 months old, became Barrett’s second child around 2005. John Peter, flown out of Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake, became her fourth oldest. Barrett’s other kids — she has seven in all — are her biological children."
"The Supreme Court will decide whether Trump can revoke temporary protected status for Haitian migrants, all of whom received that designation specifically because of the 2010 earthquake and its devastating aftermath," the report added.
Legal scholars argue her personal connection to Haiti is impossible to ignore. "She's a human being, and it's hard to imagine it not spilling over in some fashion," said Neal Devins, a professor at William & Mary Law School who has researched Supreme Court justice behavior, told the Post.
Devins cautioned, "Barrett's connection to Haiti is likely to be just one of an array of factors playing into her thinking, including her allegiance to originalist legal interpretation and the conservative legal tradition from which she comes."
International adoption experts say personal bonds to a child's home country run deep, the report notes, adding that the adoption process itself requires extensive bonding visits with children in their native countries.
"Adoptive parents typically build a strong connection with their child's native country," adoption experts explained to the Post's Julian Mark.
Devins suggested Barrett may be conflicted between her judicial philosophy and her personal experience. "I think she wants her legacy to be one of being a law-oriented justice. That said, she may appreciate this case differently."
The report notes Barrett has previously discussed Haiti's severe conditions. While she declined to comment on the pending case, the justice has publicly spoken about the difficult circumstances her adopted children endured in Haiti and the challenges they faced.