When President Donald Trump nominated now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court back in 2020, much was made of her being a mother to seven children.
Jesse and Amy Barrett, who were married in 1999, are the proud parents to Emma, Vivian, Tess, John Peter, Liam, Juliet, and Benjamin.
Of the six women who have served on the High Court, four have had children: Sandra Day O’Connor (3 sons), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (a son and a daughter), Ketanji Brown Jackson (2 daughters) and Amy Coney Barrett.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed by President Obama in 2009, once told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that she has “an occasional tug of regret” over not having children.
“I knew that I wanted to be an independent woman with my own career and (be) successful in whatever I chose to do,’’ she said. “Could I have that and have had children? Many women do. Can you have it all every minute of the day? No.”
But not until Justice Barrett arrived inside the famed Vermont marble court on First Street has there been a mother with young children on the bench – a fact reflected in yesterday’s oral arguments over Texas’ age-verification law for access to pornography sites.
At issue is H.B. 1181, a Texas law requiring websites with “over one-third sexual material harmful to minors” to require users to verify they’re over 18. Users are required to produce official documentation such as government-sponsored I.D.
Pornographers, eager to bait and addict as many people as possible, consider such requirements to be obtrusive. The Free Speech Coalition, which represents those wanting to trade in such filth said the law was vague and “imposes significant burdens on adults’ access to constitutionally protected expression.”
It’s not clear how, but that’s the kind of response you’d expect from pornographers.
As it is now, 18 other states have similar laws aimed to protect children from access to pornography and other harmful material. Critics of the law claim it violates the First Amendment, a position several of the justices, including Barrett, didn’t appear to be buying.
“Do you dispute the societal problems that are created both short-term and long-term from the rampant access to pornography for children?” Justice Kavanaugh asked. Justice Brett and Ashley Kavanaugh have two daughters, Margaret, who is in college, and Liza, who is in high school.
But it was Justice Barrett who personalized the issue and brought it down to the practical and the level where today’s mothers and fathers are living.
On Wednesday, the Justice said, “Kids can get online porn through gaming systems, tablets, phones, computers. Content filtering for all those different devices, I can say from personal experience, is difficult to keep up with.”
Justice Barrett is exactly right. There are mothers and fathers who are forced to lock up remotes, phones, and game consoles as they would firearms in the home.
Texas lawyers shot down claims the age verification “chills” the First Amendment rights of adults.
“Texas seeks to protect kids from some of the most prurient sexual content imaginable. And the means Texas has chosen is appropriate,” the state wrote. “Texas has addressed only websites dedicated to pornography, has allowed them to comply by using common age-verification technology, and has not imposed criminal penalties. Such a modest but important law satisfies any level of scrutiny.”
It should be both encouraging and refreshing to moms and dads to have other moms and dads on the High Court who can appreciate the challenges parents face today. It’s not theoretical – it’s real and it’s practical.
It’s in the best interest of our government to enforce laws that protect our youth from the destructive forces of the pornography industry.
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously described “hard-core” pornography or obscenity by saying, “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced… [b]ut I know it when I see it.”
When it comes to the dangers of online pornography, we know the risks, we see the awful impact it’s having on children, especially, and we pray the Supreme Court will have the courage and wisdom to uphold Texas’ constitutional age-verification law.
Image credit: Barrett Family
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