“We have a far-right extreme majority on the Supreme Court,” asserts James Lyall, executive director of the Vermont ACLU. “At no point in our lifetime has the Supreme Court been so far out of step with where most of the country is.”

This week, just days before a national election, the Republican-led Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to be a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. The confirmation was rammed through in record time just four years after Republicans refused to give a hearing to President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, because they insisted that eight months before an election was too soon. Barrett is now part of a 6-3 conservative majority, the most conservative court since the 1930s.

We examine the implications of the new Supreme Court in key areas: reproductive rights, civil liberties and immigrant rights, and how this could affect Vermont.

Lynn Paltrow, executive director, National Advocates for Pregnant Women

Ghita Schwarz, senior attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights

James Lyall, executive director, Vermont ACLU