Supreme Court Stint Has ‘Toughened Me Up’ Amy Coney Barrett Says

Justice Amy Coney Barrett “thought hard” when the White House reached out to her to interview for a seat on the US Supreme Court, the justice wrote in her new memoir.

Leaving South Bend, Indiana, where she had taught at Notre Dame before becoming a federal appeals court judge, meant giving up the “old Prairie-style home which was a short walk” to football tailgates as well as a new job for her husband and new schools for her children, Barrett wrote.

“I was reluctant to give up the good life we had for one that might prove to be less happy,” Barrett said. “Yet it seemed cowardly to bow out because we didn’t want to make the sacrifice.”

Barrett, 53, who has largely remained publicly silent since President Donald Trump nominated her in 2020, is providing the first extended glimpses into her experience as the fifth woman to join the Supreme Court in her book, “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution.

Barrett writes she “felt a pit in my stomach” about what might lie ahead as a Supreme Court nominee based on her experience being on the short list to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy two years earlier, which “was not enjoyable.”

“There had been an avalanche of news stories and social media posts — true and untrue, kind and cruel,” Barrett wrote. “It was difficult to have my life so publicly picked apart.”

Eluding Cameras

Barrett recounts being followed to church on a Sunday morning after Kennedy’s retirement by reporters, and sneaking out a side door and scaling a fence in high heels before dropping into the priests’ vegetable garden.

Barrett’s confirmation to replace liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the eve of the 2020 presidential election established a 6-3 conservative court majority.

“I would be lying if I said that the last several years have been easy,” Barrett wrote. “The confirmation process was hard, and it has been difficult to have practically every aspect of my life made public.”

Barrett said she’s received “death threats, lewd packages, protests at my home, and a few ugly public encounters.”

“I can take it; these last years of being in the public eye have toughened me up,” she said. “But being the target of protest has changed my daily life, from the now-constant presence of security to now-guarded social interactions.”

“For better or worse,” Barrett wrote, each of her seven kids — whom she doesn’t name in the book to protect their privacy — “has notoriety as my child,” although one of her daughters stayed quiet when a coworker “ranted about ‘that Amy Coney Barrett woman.’”

Barrett devotes much of the book to explaining how the Supreme Court decides cases and operates, while making clear from the outset that she wouldn’t reveal anything about the justices’ confidential deliberative process.

Still, there are a few tidbits about the interactions off the bench between Barrett and her colleagues, including the warm welcome that included a bag of Halloween candy for her kids from Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

An unnamed justice dispatched staff to her chambers to answer phones after hearing Barrett had no assistants. Another provided a lead on a place to rent, “which panned out, to my relief,” Barrett wrote.

Brett Kavanaugh, as the previously most junior justice, organized a welcome dinner for Barrett with a New Orleans-themed menu and entertainment in recognition of her Louisiana roots.

To welcome Ketanji Brown Jackson, who joined the court in 2022, Barrett writes that upon learning her new colleague loved the musical “Hamilton,” she asked a Broadway performer to sing selections after dinner.

Barrett, who reportedly signed a deal for $2 million for the book, joins Sotomayor and Jackson in penning lucrative books early in their tenure on the Supreme Court.

Barrett began a book tour Thursday in New York, before speaking at the National Book Festival in Washington Saturday. Her tour also includes stops at the Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan presidential libraries, the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and Notre Dame.

Parenthood

In the five years since becoming a justice, Barrett said life continues in some ways as it did before, “with a mix of kids and cases.”

With four kids still at home, Barrett said she spends the morning “making sure they have lunches, homework, sports equipment, and a handle on the after-school schedule.”

She nearly missed one “high-profile” argument in October 2021 when her husband’s return flight home from visiting college campuses got canceled. It was particularly stressful because their youngest child had a school holiday that day, but she made it to court after making alternative arrangements at the last minute.

“All to say that, like most parents, I sometimes feel like I’ve done a day’s worth of work before I get my children, much less myself, out the door,” Barrett said.