Not Dead Yet Amy Coney Barrett
Mar 24, 2026
Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and former Notre Dame law professor known for originalism. She discusses her writing process and use of clerks. She talks about balancing parenting with a demanding career. She stresses the need for better civics education and corrects common media misreads of the Court.
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How Barrett Balanced Seven Kids And A Legal Career
- Amy Coney Barrett balanced a demanding career and seven children by relying on teamwork with her husband and shifting roles as kids aged.
- She said her husband handled cooking and appointments while teenage children reduced hands-on demands, making judicial work possible.
Write Longhand First To Avoid Early Editing
- Write longhand or outline before typing to get ideas out without obsessing over perfect sentences.
- Barrett says a legal pad frees her to brainstorm and edit later, keeping focus on argument structure not sentence polish.
Clerks Turn Dictated Ideas Into Faster Opinions
- Clerks speed judicial writing by producing drafts from structured conversations, letting the judge focus on broad edits.
- Barrett dictates ideas, has clerks draft memos, then rewrites extensively to finalize opinions faster.