Amy Coney Barrett was approved to the Supreme Court by the United States Senate on Oct. 27. She is now the third justice appointed by President Donald Trump alongside Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. This nomination and approval were controversial among America’s population, as around half of America thought that she wasn’t qualified and didn’t have enough experience to be an effective justice.

Before becoming a Supreme Court justice, Barrett graduated from Notre Dame’s prestigious law school to later become a professor there. Following this, she served three years on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Then, she was nominated and confirmed to the Supreme Court where she will now serve a life term.

This appointment may come as a shock to Americans because of Barrett’s lack of experience and the mere fact that she couldn’t even remember the first five freedoms in the First Amendment. According to NBC, “Asked by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., to name five freedoms protected by the First Amendment, Judge Amy Coney Barrett was unable to provide all five. ‘Speech, religion, press, assembly,’ said Barrett. ‘I don’t know—what am I missing?’”

Barrett was nominated to become the Court’s next justice on Sep. 26, which was just over a month before the presidential election. However, when President Barack Obama tried to nominate Merrick Garland with a much longer time-span prior to the 2016 election, the Senate instantly blocked his nomination and didn’t even hold a hearing. “It isn’t fair that Barrett got a hearing and was eventually approved, when Garland who was much more qualified didn’t even get a real chance,” sophomore Humza Sehbai said.

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Polls by many different credible and distinguished news outlets had Barrett’s approval rating around 50% with Dailymail reporting a 48% approval rating and Gallup reporting a 51% approval rating. Although this may seem like a high percentage nowadays, most confirmed justices have much higher approval ratings since they are meant to represent the whole country, not just one half.

Compared to the moderate views of the average American, Barrett has very extreme views and opinions about many important issues. For example, she believes that a woman shouldn’t be able to have an abortion after a certain point, which would overturn part of the landmark ruling known as Roe v. Wade. “Personally, I don’t like her as a Supreme Court justice because she has very extreme views that don’t align with the majority of America’s population. Also, her views are based on what the Catholic Church says, but I believe that church and state should be kept separate since not everyone is Catholic or even Christian,” freshman Jai Ahuja said.

Overall, Barrett’s nomination and appointment were shocking to most of America and even most of the world because of how different her views are from the typical American and because of her traditional ideals such as her stance on abortion “always being immoral” and thinking a prison correctional officer shooting a warning shot was not considered cruel and unusual punishment.