Amy Coney Barrett Talks 'Overwhelming' Start, Home Life 'Balance' and Collegiality Among Justices

Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP Amy Coney Barrett

With Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation to the Supreme Court all but certain, Justice Amy Coney Barrett won't be the high court's junior member for long.

Barrett, who was nominated by Donald Trump in the final weeks of his presidency and confirmed without bipartisan votes — a move that shrouded her ascension in controversy — reflected on her confirmation process and offered advice and insight for incoming justices during an interview at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Monday.

When the conversation with Frederick J. Ryan Jr., chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Reagan Presidential Library Foundation, was interrupted by a protester in the audience, Barrett, 50, appeared unfazed.

"Fortunately, I'm a mother of seven," she quipped. "I'm used to distractions and sometimes even outbursts."

Barrett also spoke about the moment she learned that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died and that she would be thrust into the media spotlight, how she and her husband, Jesse M. Barrett, balance their work and raising seven children and why the Supreme Court cafeteria is not ideal for date night — even though it has a "fro-yo machine" and Starbucks coffee.

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Death of RBG

"My husband and I were out to dinner on a Friday night that Justice Ginsburg passed away [in September 2020]. We were with two friends, both of whom happen to be lawyers, enjoying a wonderful meal and then our phones started going off."

Barrett said the news of "the loss of a great American" was "a very sad occasion and obviously put a damper on the meal."

Back in the Spotlight

Barrett said she had been considered by Trump for the Supreme Court in 2018 so she and her husband knew she would likely be shortlisted again in 2020.

"Regardless of what happened, at that point I was likely to become the object of media scrutiny again," she said. "That weekend ... I intended to go to Costco and go to my daughter's soccer game."

But the marshal of the Supreme Court, charged with court security, advised the potential nominee to stay at home, which gave the couple an opportunity to discuss facing a possible life-changing decision together, Barrett said.

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OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images Judge Amy Coney Barrett

"Are we up to this or are we not?" Barrett said they asked each other. "Jesse said, 'This is an opportunity to serve our country and if you want to do it, I'm all in. But if we do it, we're burning the boats.' "

That line, Barrett added, became their "mantra."

"The confirmation process is going to be hard if you're selected," her husband said, according to Barrett. "And then if you are confirmed, there will be a lot of hard things that we face about the job and there just cannot be any looking back. If you agree on those terms, then I'm in."

Her Confirmation

"My process was a little bit unique," Barrett, 50, said, acknowledging the "compressed time frame" for her selection and confirmation process which unfolded in unprecedented fashion only weeks before the 2020 presidential election after Ginsburg died on Sept. 18, 2020. (Many Democrats also took issue with Barrett's conservative background, in contrast to the liberal Ginsburg.)

"That weekend, I was contacted by the White House counsel and invited to come interview that week and it all just happened very quickly," Barrett also said.

Work-Life 'Balance'

In short, Barrett said being a mom of seven and a Supreme Court justice is tough — but in a way that is likely familiar to others.

"The challenges that we face are those that couples who are both working and have children at home always face," she said of raising a family with her husband, who is an attorney.

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Drew Angerer/Getty Judge Amy Coney Barrett

"We balance now in the same way that we've balanced for our whole marriage — who's going to do what for child care and spreading ourselves thin," she continued. "Jesse is very generous in picking up a lot of the slack. He is working largely out of a home office right now and so that gives him a lot of flexibility, which is much appreciate by me."

Barrett also said she and her husband do not to talk shop to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.

"It's something that we're very conscious of and careful about, but we're living in a time when we have a lot of couples who both are working so I think that the court and society has to adjust to respect that," she said.

Asked whether the court should introduce guidelines for the spouses of justices, she suggested it may not be the best idea.

"I don't think most of the spouses would be happy about those guidelines," she said. "Certainly when I try to give my husband guidelines about what to do and what not to do in the house, even, that does not go over very well."

Advice for a New Justice

"This job is a little bit like parenting in that you … learn how to parent by watching your parents — not that you imitate everything that they did, right?" Barrett, who clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia in the 1998 term, said during the interview. "But it's what you like and what you don't like and they're the model against which you decide what you're going to do."

Though she didn't mention the new nominee by name, Justice Barrett implied that Judge Jackson may have a smoother transition than she did in 2020, which she described as "an overwhelming time."

"I was starting midterm," she explained. "I was confirmed, and there were arguments the following Monday. I was scrambling. I had to set up a chamber, hire staff and get up and running on the oral arguments, read the briefs."

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Barrett suggested that a new justice should prepare herself for two uncomfortable realities that come with the job. "One of the difficult things that I experienced — and I wasn't really prepared for — was the shift into being a public figure," she said. "Also security is much different now … We all have security details."

Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Supreme Court justices

Barrett also suggested that a newcomer shouldn't be nervous because "all the justices were so welcoming" to her and stopped by her chamber to say hello, bring lunch and offer their advice.

"On the night that I was confirmed," she said, "both the Chief Justice [John Roberts] and Justice [Sonia] Sotomayor called immediately to extend their congratulations."

Hopping Fences in Heels

While discussing the intensity of the spotlight, Barrett told a story from 2018 when she was considered for the seat that Justice Brett Kavanaugh ultimately filled.

She said at that time, "Five media trucks parked outside our house for days and days on end. Some were very aggressive."

One Sunday morning, as she headed to Mass, she said, "I led them on a chase through the neighborhood because I didn't want to be followed. I was very proud of myself because I managed to shake them. I was confident. I parked the car at our church. And when I went to walk in, I saw one of the Suburbans."

OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

During the service, Barrett said she "spent the whole time … plotting how I could escape without giving the media the satisfaction of getting a picture of me outside of the church."

The plan she came up was to exit before the end of the service through a door she'd never used before.

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"It turned out there was a reason for that — it didn't actually exit out but it rather went into the priest's private residence of the yard," she said. "I'm standing there in the yard and there's a fence. I faced a choice: I could either hop the fence or go out the front and give them the picture."

"I decided in my high heels to climb the fence, so gracefully," she continued. "When I dropped down on the other side, I see our associate pastor who says, 'Amy, what are you doing in our vegetable garden?' He turned out to be a great co-conspirator. Father Dan helped me make my escape."

SCOTUS Cafeteria

Barrett explained that there is a tradition that junior justices serve on the Supreme Court's cafeteria committee.

Justice Elena Kagan, she revealed, was responsible for bringing a "fro-yo machine" and Justice Kavanaugh "notably brought pizza to the cafeteria."

Thanks to what Barrett called "good luck," the cafeteria was closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she never had to attend a committee meeting. But she said her suggestion would have been to bring a Starbucks coffee bar to the dining area, which happened anyway during a recent renovation.

"It really is very lovely," she said of the cafeteria. "And I had nothing to do with it."

Despite the current offerings, Barrett said the Supreme Court cafeteria "would not be a date night destination or it would be a very brief relationship if it were."