Supreme Court nominee and US Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 21, 2020.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
A federal prosecutor on Friday withdrew his name from consideration for a seat on the Connecticut Supreme Court after backlash from lawmakers over a 2017 letter he signed in support of Amy Coney Barrettwhich is now a US Supreme Court justice.
The nomination of Gov. Ned Lamont on Sandra Slack Glover has floundered in recent days over his initial endorsement of Barrett for a seat on the 7th Circuit US Court of Appeals — five years before Barrett cast a vote on US Supreme Court to end the federal right to abortion.
The right to abortion is codified in Connecticut law. The state expanded access to abortion following the controversial decision of the US Supreme Court last summer in the case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Glover, who calls himself a staunch defender of abortion rightssaid Monday during his confirmation hearing before the Connecticut Senate Judiciary Committee that he was “naive” and “wrong” to sign the letter in support of Barrett.
“Looking back and knowing what I now know, I shouldn’t have signed it,” Glover testified about the letter, which was signed by every US Supreme Court clerk who worked during the court’s 1998-99 term.
At the time, Glover was a clerk that term for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and Barrett was a clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
Glover said Monday that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the 50-year-old abortion rights case Roe v. Wade was “wrong and very bad.”
“Speaking as a woman, it was horrifying,” testified Glover, who is the head of the appellate division of the US Attorney’s Office of Connecticut.
“We should all have a constitutional right to control our reproductive freedom and our bodies,” he affirmed. “My faith in it is firm and unshakeable.”
Despite his statements that day, the main Democratic and Republican members of the Judiciary Committee predicted on Tuesday that his nomination would not be approved, the news site said. CTMirror.com reported. The committee declined to vote on his nomination after a seven-hour hearing on Monday.
“I really don’t see a path forward for this particular nominee,” said Sen. John Kissel of Enfield, top Republican on the committee, according to CTMirror. “The votes weren’t even close to double digits in his favor.”