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Buzz Thomas, Guest columnist Published 7:00 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2020

Amy Coney Barrett was nominated for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Barrett graduated magna cum laude from Rhodes College in 1994. Memphis Commercial Appeal

Amy Coney Barrett's belief in originalism means she interprets the words of the constitution as they were commonly understood when it was drafted.

Question: What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 70?

Answer: Your Honor

My favorite lawyer joke doesnt work very well for Judge Amy Coney Barrett or any member of the U.S. Supreme Court.They are, by and large, brilliant.But brilliant eggheads Im afraid.

Most have never tried a case and dont know the first thing about how laws are actually made.They are most often drawn from the sterile halls of academia as with Judge Barrett where they have spent their careers teaching and writing about the law. Like the consultant who knows 500 ways to tie a trout fly but has never been fishing.

For 15 years, I practiced law at the nations high court. I would prepare my briefs in the small library on the top floor and can remember bumping into great jurists like Thurgood Marshall, William Rehnquist and Sandra Day OConnor. To me, the Supreme Court is Americas greatest institution with a dignity and decorum unlike the other branches of government. Which is why Americans care so much about the judicial philosophy of any new nominee to the Court.

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett speaks during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. [SUSAN WALSH/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS](Photo: Susan Walsh, AP)

Judge Barrett, like her mentor Antonin Scalia, describes herself as an originalist. That means she interprets the words of the constitution as they were commonly understood when it was drafted in 1787.So, if equal protection of the laws did not apply to women, minorities or homosexuals then, it does not apply to them now.Unless, of course, the constitution has been amended as it was in 1865 to say that African Americans could not be enslaved and in 1920 to say that women could vote.

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But gays and lesbians are left out of the American Dream in an originalists reading of the constitution, and the right to privacy (including a womans right to terminate her pregnancy) simply disappears.

The Eighth Amendments prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment would be shrunk to the size of a postage stamp since public flogging was still commonplace in the 18th century. Likewise, there would be no barrier to teaching creationism instead of science in public schools or using public funds for parochial schools since there were no public schools in 1789 when the First Amendment was drafted.

If originalist thinking had prevailed on the Court in 1954, we would still have segregated schools in the south.

Noodle on that.

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Judge Barrett also describes herself as a textualist. That means she pays no attention to what a legislature was actually trying to accomplish when it passed a law but rather limits her analysis to the strict wording of the statute. Thats great if you have a bunch of geniuses working in the Congress and the legislatures across the country, but you dont. Far from it.

Buzz Thomas

For most, this isnt even their fulltime job.They are farmers, plumbers, shop owners, soccer moms. Sometimes discerning their primary reason for passing a law is the only way to make sense of the inartful language.

Remember the analogy about sausage making?Thats what the legislative process looks like.Anybody who has ever worked with a legislative body knows it.I worked on Capitol Hill, and believe me.Even the U.S. Congress can pass laws that read like they were written by a seventh grader.

Heres the thing.The framers of our constitution may have been a bunch of white, male, Protestant bigots, but they were also blithering geniuses.

Dont you think they realized they were drafting a constitution rather than a bunch of tax regulations?And that they might have been wise enough to select some incredibly broad terms like due process and equal protection for a reason? And that the reason might just be to craft a civic framework for our country that would last for the ages?

Buzz Thomas is a retired minister, constitutional lawyer and former interim superintendent of Knox County, Tennessee schools.

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Here is the problem with Amy Coney Barrett's judicial philosophy | Opinion - Knoxville News Sentinel