Supreme Court of the United States
Amy Coney Barrett
Associate Justice
Biography
Amy Vivian Coney Barrett is an American lawyer and jurist serving since 2020 as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The fifth woman to serve on the court, she was nominated by President Donald Trump. She was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 2017 to 2020.
Source: Wikipedia
Education & Career
Undergraduate
Rhodes College, B.A. in English Literature and French, summa cum laude (1994)
Law School
Notre Dame Law School, J.D., summa cum laude (1997)
Prior Roles
- —Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2017–2020)
- —Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School (2002–2017)
- —Law Clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court (1998–1999)
Judicial Philosophy
Barrett is an originalist and textualist who approaches statutory and constitutional interpretation through the lens of original public meaning. She has emphasized the distinction between legal and policy judgments, arguing that courts should not substitute their policy preferences for those of the elected branches.
Notable Opinions
United States v. Rahimi
2024
Joined the majority upholding the federal law prohibiting domestic abusers subject to protective orders from possessing firearms, while writing separately to clarify the methodology courts should use when assessing firearm regulations against the Second Amendment's historical tradition.
Harrington v. Purdue Pharma
2024
Held that the Bankruptcy Code does not authorize a reorganization plan that shields third parties — including members of the Sackler family — from civil liability without the consent of those whose claims are being discharged.
Biden v. Nebraska
2023
Joined the majority striking down the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness program, and wrote separately to defend the major questions doctrine as a tool of statutory interpretation rather than a creation of new law.