Amy Coney Barrett

Amy Coney Barrett
Born	Amy Vivian Coney 28 1, 1972
Birthplace	New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Title	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Known for	Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; originalist and textualist jurisprudence
Education	Rhodes College (BA) Notre Dame Law School (JD)
Children	7
Awards	Hatch Award for Distinguished Scholarship (Notre Dame)

Amy Vivian Coney Barrett (born January 28, 1972) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since October 2020. Nominated by President Donald Trump to succeed the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Barrett became the fifth woman in American history to serve on the nation's highest court. Before her elevation to the Supreme Court, she served as a United States circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 2017 to 2020, also by appointment of President Trump. A graduate of Rhodes College and Notre Dame Law School, where she ranked first in her class, Barrett clerked for Judge Laurence Silberman of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whose judicial philosophy she has cited as a major influence on her own approach to the law. Barrett supports textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in constitutional interpretation. While generally considered part of the Court's conservative bloc, Barrett has in recent years demonstrated a pattern of independence, serving as a swing vote in several notable cases, including a 2025 ruling striking down presidential tariff authority.

Early Life

Amy Vivian Coney was born on January 28, 1972, in New Orleans, Louisiana. She grew up in the New Orleans metropolitan area, and her Louisiana roots have remained a part of her public identity. Barrett was raised in a Catholic household, and her faith has been a significant element of both her personal life and public profile throughout her career.

Barrett attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. She graduated with distinction from Rhodes before proceeding to law school. Her academic achievements at the undergraduate level set the stage for a distinguished law school career.

Barrett enrolled at Notre Dame Law School at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, where she excelled academically. She earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1997, graduating first in her class. Her outstanding academic performance at Notre Dame drew the attention of prominent jurists and led to prestigious clerkship opportunities upon graduation.

Education

Barrett received her undergraduate education at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree. She then attended Notre Dame Law School, where she earned her Juris Doctor in 1997, ranking first in her graduating class. During her time at Notre Dame, Barrett served on the Notre Dame Law Review and received the Hatch Award for Distinguished Scholarship, the law school's highest academic honor.

Following law school, Barrett pursued two prestigious judicial clerkships. She first clerked for Judge Laurence Silberman of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, one of the most prominent federal appellate courts in the country. She subsequently clerked for Antonin Scalia, then an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, during the 1998–1999 term. Her clerkship with Scalia proved formative; Barrett has repeatedly cited Scalia as a mentor and described his approach to textualism and originalism as foundational to her own judicial philosophy.

Career

Private Practice and Early Academic Career

After completing her clerkships, Barrett entered private legal practice. She worked at the Washington, D.C., law firm Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin before pursuing an academic career.

In 2002, Barrett joined the faculty of Notre Dame Law School, the institution from which she had graduated. She began as a member of the law faculty and became a full professor in 2010. During her time on the Notre Dame faculty, Barrett taught courses in civil procedure, constitutional law, and statutory interpretation. She published scholarly articles on constitutional law, originalism, statutory interpretation, and federal courts. Her academic work drew attention from legal scholars and contributed to the development of originalist legal theory.

Barrett maintained strong ties to Notre Dame throughout her career. In December 2025, she returned to the law school for a fireside conversation with students, organized by the Student Bar Association, where she discussed mentorship, vocation, and the work of the Supreme Court.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2017–2020)

On May 8, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Barrett to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, to fill the seat vacated by Judge John Daniel Tinder, who had assumed senior status. Her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee attracted national attention when some senators questioned her about the role of her Catholic faith in her judicial decision-making. Barrett's response—that her personal views would not influence her rulings—became widely discussed in legal and political circles.

Barrett was confirmed by the Senate and took her seat on the Seventh Circuit on November 2, 2017. She succeeded Judge Tinder and served on the appellate court until her elevation to the Supreme Court in October 2020. While serving on the Seventh Circuit, Barrett continued to teach at Notre Dame Law School.

During her tenure on the Seventh Circuit, Barrett authored opinions in a range of areas, including cases involving the Second Amendment, immigration, and employment law. Her appellate record drew scrutiny and interest from both supporters and critics when she was later considered for the Supreme Court. In 2018, she was reported to be among the potential nominees on President Trump's shortlist for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, though Trump ultimately nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh for that seat.

Nomination to the Supreme Court

On September 18, 2020, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at the age of 87, creating a vacancy on the Supreme Court. On September 26, 2020, President Trump announced Barrett as his nominee to fill the vacancy, describing her as "one of our nation's most brilliant and gifted legal minds." The nomination was formally transmitted to the Senate on September 29, 2020.

At the announcement ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House, Barrett paid tribute to Justice Scalia, under whom she had clerked, stating that his judicial philosophy was her own. She described herself as an originalist, asserting that judges should interpret the Constitution based on its original public meaning at the time it was adopted.

The nomination proved controversial due to its timing. The 2020 presidential election was only 38 days away, and critics noted that in 2016, Senate Republicans had refused to hold hearings for Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, on the grounds that the vacancy had arisen during a presidential election year. Senate Democrats opposed the confirmation process, arguing that the seat should be filled by the winner of the upcoming election. Senate Republicans, holding a majority, proceeded with the hearings and confirmation vote.

Senate Confirmation Hearings

Barrett's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee began on October 12, 2020, and lasted four days. During the hearings, Barrett described herself as an originalist, stating that the meaning of the Constitution "doesn't change over time" and that judges must apply the law as it was originally understood. She testified that she would set aside her personal views and decide cases based on the law and the Constitution, declining to signal how she might rule on specific issues likely to come before the Court, including the Affordable Care Act, gun rights, and abortion.

Barrett drew a distinction between her judicial philosophy and that of her mentor Scalia, stating that while she shared his philosophy, she did not necessarily share all of his specific opinions. She emphasized judicial restraint and adherence to legal text and precedent.

On October 26, 2020, the United States Senate voted 52–48 to confirm Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court. All Democratic senators and one Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, voted against confirmation. Barrett was sworn in the same evening in a ceremony at the White House, administered by Justice Clarence Thomas.

Supreme Court Tenure

Barrett took her seat on the Supreme Court on October 27, 2020, becoming the 115th justice in the Court's history and the fifth woman to serve on the bench. Her appointment shifted the ideological balance of the Court, replacing the liberal Ginsburg with a conservative jurist and creating a 6–3 conservative majority.

Judicial Philosophy

Barrett has consistently identified herself as an originalist and textualist, following the interpretive approach associated with her late mentor, Justice Scalia. In her account of originalism, she has stated that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the meaning its words held at the time of their ratification, rather than as an evolving document whose meaning adapts to contemporary values. In statutory interpretation, she has adhered to textualism, focusing on the plain meaning of statutory language rather than relying on legislative history or congressional intent.

In an October 2025 public appearance at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center, Barrett discussed her views on the Court and the judicial process, offering what she described as five things she wanted Americans to know about the Supreme Court. She reflected on the confirmation process, calling it a "lowlight" of her career, and discussed the collegial atmosphere among the justices despite their ideological differences.

Notable Opinions and Votes

During her tenure, Barrett has participated in several significant cases. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), the Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, holding that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Barrett joined the majority opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito.

Barrett has also authored and joined opinions in cases concerning administrative law, the separation of powers, and the scope of executive authority. In a notable contribution to the debate over independent agencies, Barrett wrote about the constitutional status and limits of agencies insulated from direct presidential control, drawing attention from legal commentators across the ideological spectrum.

In 2025, Barrett was among the six justices who struck down President Trump's sweeping tariff authority, a ruling that drew public criticism from the president, who described the decisions of Barrett and Justice Neil Gorsuch—both his own appointees—as "an embarrassment to their families." The tariff case underscored Barrett's willingness to rule independently of the president who appointed her.

Analysis of Barrett's voting record has identified a growing pattern of independence from the Court's other conservative justices. In a 2025 analysis, Vox described three emerging camps among the Republican-appointed justices regarding questions of executive power and the role of the courts: "judicial supremacists," "GOP partisans," and Amy Coney Barrett, whom the publication treated as occupying a distinct position of her own. Barrett's role as a swing vote on certain questions of administrative and executive power has attracted attention from legal scholars and commentators.

Personal Life

Amy Coney Barrett is married to Jesse Barrett, a former federal prosecutor. The couple has seven children, including two adopted from Haiti and one child with Down syndrome. The family's size and composition received public attention during her Supreme Court nomination process.

Barrett is a practicing Roman Catholic. Her faith and its potential influence on her judicial decision-making were subjects of discussion during both her Seventh Circuit and Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Barrett has stated that her personal religious beliefs do not dictate her judicial rulings and that she would follow the law faithfully regardless of her private convictions.

Barrett has maintained a connection to the University of Notre Dame community throughout her career. In December 2025, she returned to Notre Dame Law School for a fireside conversation with students, organized by the Student Bar Association, in which she discussed topics including mentorship, vocation, and the daily work of the Supreme Court.

Recognition

Barrett's appointment to the Supreme Court was a landmark event: she became the fifth woman in the history of the United States to serve as a Supreme Court justice, and the first mother of school-age children to hold the position. Her confirmation at age 48 made her one of the youngest justices appointed to the Court in recent decades.

During her academic career at Notre Dame, Barrett received the Hatch Award for Distinguished Scholarship, the law school's highest academic honor, and was recognized multiple times by students for excellence in teaching.

Barrett's jurisprudence has drawn both praise and criticism. Supporters have credited her originalist approach as principled and consistent with the text and history of the Constitution. Critics have argued that her appointment, given the circumstances of its timing—just weeks before the 2020 presidential election—was a political act, and have raised concerns about the implications of her judicial philosophy for issues such as abortion rights, gun regulation, and executive power.

Her independence from the president who appointed her, particularly her votes against the Trump administration on questions of executive authority in 2025, has been noted by observers across the political spectrum. In public appearances, Barrett has emphasized the importance of judicial independence and the collegial nature of the Supreme Court, seeking to counter perceptions that the justices are motivated by partisan considerations.

Legacy

As of 2026, Barrett's tenure on the Supreme Court is ongoing, and her full legacy as a jurist remains to be determined. However, her appointment has already had a significant impact on the Court's ideological composition and its approach to several areas of law.

Barrett's confirmation consolidated a 6–3 conservative majority on the Court, a shift that facilitated landmark rulings including the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Her presence on the Court has altered the dynamics of constitutional interpretation, particularly in areas related to the scope of government regulatory authority, the separation of powers, and individual rights under the Second Amendment.

Barrett's role as a former protégée of Justice Scalia has positioned her as a leading figure in the originalist movement within the American judiciary. At the same time, her independent streak—demonstrated in her willingness to break from fellow conservative justices and from the expectations of the president who appointed her—has complicated efforts to categorize her jurisprudence in simple ideological terms. Her contributions to debates over the constitutional status of independent agencies and the limits of executive power have been noted by scholars as potentially influential in shaping the future of administrative law.

The originalist philosophy Barrett espouses—interpreting the Constitution based on its original public meaning—has been described as a continuation and evolution of the approach championed by Justice Scalia. As one commentator noted, her position on the Court reflects both fidelity to and development beyond the originalist tradition she inherited.

Barrett has continued to engage with legal education and the broader public. Her return visits to Notre Dame Law School and her public remarks at institutions such as the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center reflect an interest in explaining the work of the Court and the judicial role to a wider audience.