What Barrett’s Rise Has Meant for the Supreme Court

Veteran legal journalist and professor Linda Greenhouse's chronicle of the 2020-2021 Supreme Court term opens cinematically, with what crime writers might call "a grisly tableau." Against a dark October sky, a Klieg-lit Donald Trump stands on the frigid White House balcony. Newly sworn-in Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett ascends the stairs to join the president in the light, the first justice in 151 years to take the bench without a single vote from the minority party. "The chosen one," Greenhouse names her.