Justice Clarence Thomas (R) administered the oath of office to Amy Coney Barrett on October 26, 2020, at the White House, alongside President Donald Trump (Credit: The White House/ Wikimedia Commons/ Public Domain)

On October 26, 2020, the US Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett as the 115th Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The 48-year-old, who was nominated for the lifetime appointment by President Trump on September 26, 2020, will fill the vacancy left behind by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died from complications of pancreatic cancer on September 18, 2020.

Justice Barrett is the youngest person and only the fifth woman to serve on the nation's highest court. The mother of seven children, aged 8 to 19, is also the first female Supreme Court Justice with school-aged children.

During her October 26, 2020, ceremonial constitutional oath ceremony at the White House, Ms. Barrett said, "My fellow Americans, even though we judges don't face elections, we still work for you. It is your Constitution that establishes the rule of law and the judicial independence that is so central to it. The oath that I have solemnly taken tonight means at its core that I will do my job without any fear or favor and that I will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences."

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump meet with Justice Barrett, her husband Jesse, and her seven children in the Oval Office of the White House on September 26, 2020 (Credit: Official White House Photo by Andrea Hank/Public Domain)

The oldest of seven children, Ms. Barrett grew up in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, LA. After graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa — the country's highest academic honor — with an undergraduate degree in English from Rhodes College in 1994, she went on to pursue law on a full-tuition scholarship at Notre Dame Law School.

Ms. Barrett graduated at the top of her class in 1997 and spent the next two years honing her skills as a judicial law clerk for Judge Laurence Silberman of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia of the US Supreme Court. She then joined a boutique law firm specializing in litigation in Washington, DC, before returning to her alma mater, Notre Dame, as a law professor in 2002. Known for her sharp intellect and inclusiveness, Ms. Barrett was extremely popular with students and voted professor of the year multiple times. In 2017, President Trump selected Ms. Barrett to serve as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, a position she held until her recent appointment to the US Supreme Court.

Resources: Vox.com, Wikipedia.org, NPR.org