Barrett, Amy Coney (1972-…), became an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 2020. President Donald J. Trump appointed her to the court to fill a vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg . At the time of her appointment, Barrett had served since 2017 as a judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal court that makes legal judgments for the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
Amy Vivian Coney was born on Jan. 28, 1972, in New Orleans , Louisiana. She was raised in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. She received a bachelor’s degree from Rhodes College in 1994 and a J.D. degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1997. After graduating, she served as a law clerk for Laurence H. Silberman, a judge serving on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. She then served as law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia . She married Jesse Barrett in 1999.
Also in 1999, Amy Coney Barrett began working as an associate for private-practice law firms in Washington, D.C. She became an adjunct faculty member and fellow in law at the George Washington University Law School in 2001. In 2002, Barrett joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame as a law professor. President Trump nominated her to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017. In September 2020, Trump nominated her to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by Justice Ginsburg’s death eight days earlier.
Court observers have described Barrett as a conservative judge. She has consistently ruled conservatively on such issues as abortion rights, gun control, and immigration. She has criticized the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling that upheld key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act . Barrett describes herself as an originalist, meaning that she believes the Constitution of the United States should be interpreted as it was originally meant to be understood. She is an active member of the Roman Catholic Church .
