CHICAGO (AP) – A front-runner to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a federal appellate judge who has established herself as a reliable conservative on hot-button legal issues from abortion to gun control. Amy Coney Barrett is hailed by religious conservatives and others on the right as an ideological heir to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Liberals say Barrett’s legal views are too influenced by her Catholic beliefs and fear she could seek to scale back abortion rights.