The abortion judge and his million dollar deal
Barrett was appointed by the then US President Donald Trump
Which: REUTERS
Judge Amy Coney Barrett is one of the most powerful women in America. She played an important role in enforcing the tougher abortion law and became famous for it. Her fame has brought her millions for something that doesn’t exist yet. Because you represent the American division.
V.Many years ago, the Rowohlt publishing house wanted to publish a book by philosophy professor Peter Singer. Singer argued in that book that the Judeo-Christian oddity of allowing all babies to live, even deformed ones, was wrong and that it would have been better if the disabled were killed in the womb. Many disabled people did not find it particularly funny; they appealed to the Rowohlt publishing house not to publish this book. The word “erasing culture” did not yet exist, which is why some observers at the time spoke outraged about the censorship. Peter Singer has been stylized as a victim: you can still say anything!
Of course it was sheer nonsense. Although there is a right to freedom of expression, there is no right to have it printed by a particular publisher. Manuscript rejection is a proven practice hundreds of times a week; it could also be said that a publisher defines himself more by what he does not publish than by what he prints. If there were no rejections, you could abolish all changes and have all books published from now on.
So to the present case: Amy Coney Barrett, a Washington Supreme Court judge, received a two million dollar advance for a book in which she wants to explain that judges don’t guide their verdicts on personal feelings they should leave. Amy Coney Barrett is a devout Catholic who has been at the forefront of bringing Roe v. Wade ”- the historic ruling that until recently guaranteed American women the right to abortion. Her book will be published by Bertelsmann’s Penguin Random House Verlag.
Now 250 people who are a part of American literary life – mainly editors, agents, editorial employees – have written an open letter protesting that the constitutional judge’s book will be published by Penguin Random House. They are not concerned with limiting the right to freedom of expression, they point out, but the right to abortion is a human right enshrined in the United Nations Charter and the Bertelsmann Group has committed itself internally to this Charter, violating its own Rules when listing The Book by Amy Coney Barrett.
It will probably be called this time too: Censorship! Amy Coney Barrett should be able to say what she wants. Of course; and no one disputes it. The only question is whether this publisher should print this book. Opinion can be divided on this, and the signatories of that open letter are exercising their right to freedom of expression by protesting. By the way, Peter Singer’s book was published at that time in another publisher; Singer is a tenured professor at Princeton University. No cancellation culture anywhere.
Our prophecy: Amy Coney Barrett’s work will be published by Penguin Random House despite protests. And she will continue to be a judge on the Washington Supreme Court, whose statements are not non-binding opinions but performative speech acts: with her words, she will not only describe her view of things, but she will create facts. The next item on the agenda is likely to be the abolition of gay marriage at some point, perhaps at the same time as the first in the book.
