Was that Amy Coney Barrett speeding down I10? 7 takeaways from USA TODAY interview Maureen Groppe and Susan Page, USA TODAYSeptember 8, 2025 at 2:01 AM 0 Amy Coney Barrett would like to have a word. The Supreme Court justice has written a book, "Listening to the Law," published Sept. 9 by Sentinel.
- - Was that Amy Coney Barrett speeding down I-10? 7 takeaways from USA TODAY interview
Maureen Groppe and Susan Page, USA TODAYSeptember 8, 2025 at 2:01 AM
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Amy Coney Barrett would like to have a word.
The Supreme Court justice has written a book, "Listening to the Law," published Sept. 9 by Sentinel. (Barrett reportedly received a $2 million advance.) In the book, she wears her former law professor hat to try to make the workings of the judicial system understandable to readers who don't necessarily have law degrees.
In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, she also expounded on professional issues and more personal ones. Here are seven takeaways.
Barrett defends overturning Roe v. Wade
In her book, Barrett defends the 2022 decision she joined that overturned Roe v. Wade – the watershed ruling that brought protesters to her house and that continues to reverberate in the political sphere.
The majority held that the right to end a pregnancy was found neither in the text of the Constitution nor in the nation's history, erasing a reproductive right the high court established nearly five decades ago.
"The evidence does not show that the American people have traditionally considered the right to obtain an abortion so fundamental to liberty that it 'goes without saying' in the Constitution," she wrote. "In fact, the evidence cuts in the opposite direction."
The nation's "complicated moral debate" over abortion, she wrote, is a "dramatic contrast to widespread American support for liberties like the rights to marry, have sex, procreate, use contraception, and direct the upbringing of children."
She encouraged readers to read both the majority's opinion and the dissenting views.
More: Kim Davis refused same-sex marriage license in 2015. Now she wants to cancel gay marriage.
"Listening to the Law," a book by Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is publishing on Sept. 9, 2025.Bringing a 79-page printout to the Coney Family Vacation
That's what a brother-in-law, a non-lawyer, did after the decision came out. He arrived at the annual "Coney Family Vacation" with all 79 pages of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, plus another 91 pages of concurring and dissenting opinions.
"You always say 'read the opinion,' so that's what I'm doing," he said.
Although discussing the ruling did not top Barrett's list for how she wanted to spend her vacation, she hugged him.
"I do always advise people to read the Court's opinions, but I doubt many people – including lawyers – take me up on it," she wrote.
People carry cutouts of Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito as abortion rights protesters participate in nationwide demonstrations following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in New York City, U.S., May 14, 2022.About that blank notepad...
In one viral moment in Barrett's 2020 confirmation hearing, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked the nominee what she was relying on to respond to the grilling.
Cornyn first pointed out that most of the senators had multiple binders or other briefing materials in front of them.
Barrett held up a blank notepad. Her point? She had been citing various judges, cases and laws from memory.
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett displays her blank notepad during the second day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 13, 2020.
Still, Barrett said, Cornyn took a risk by asking that question.
"Nobody could see what I had on my pad," she told USA TODAY. "And I was just lucky that I hadn't written anything that I wouldn't have wanted the world to see. So it worked out well."
The law can look cold
When the Supreme Court in May allowed the Trump administration to end a humanitarian migration program for Haitians and others fleeing turmoil in their home countries, that could have hit close to home for Barrett. Two of her children were adopted from Haiti.
But Barrett said that the migration program case is a good example of how judges must put their feelings aside and not be swayed "by things that move you emotionally and situations in which you have very deep empathy."
U.S President Donald Trump poses with U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett and her family at an event to announce her as his nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on September 18, at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 26, 2020.
"And I think that, to Americans, that probably makes the law look very cold sometimes, because empathy isn't the stuff of legal decisions," she said. "I have to be willing to render decisions that are consistent with the law even when I find them distasteful, or even painful, or kind of the antithesis of what I would prefer to happen if I were just getting to make a call myself."
Staying grounded? Meet her siblings
Being a Supreme Court justice brings with it somber black robes and an exalted status. There are just nine of them at any one time, after all, and there've only been 116 throughout U.S. history.
But as a mother of seven, staying grounded hasn't been a problem for Barrett. For one thing, they don't usually brag to their friends about their mother's job.
Members of Amy Coney Barrett's family look on as the Supreme Court nominee testifies on the third day of her confirmation hearing on Oct. 14, 2020.
"I think they try not to bring it up mostly because they want to feel regular," she said, "so they kind of let people figure it out for themselves."
Barrett's brother and her five sisters may be proud of her, but that doesn't mean they're deferential − not because she's on the Supreme Court, not even because she's the eldest. On family trips, "when we go into the Airbnb or the rental (house), I don't get to pick the bedroom first."
'Something needs to change in our culture'
Security details used to be the exception for Supreme Court justices.
Now they're the rule.
The threats are sometimes even leveled against family members.
"My family is very close and we have a kind of, 'we're all in this together'" attitude about the ways her new prominence has touched even their lives, Barrett said. "But violence or threats of violence should not be the price of public service, and certainly not against family members. So something needs to change in our culture."
Activists opposed to, and supporting, the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court stand outside the Supreme Court on Oct. 26, 2020.
She is grateful for her security details − from the U.S. Marshals Service during the nomination process and the Supreme Court Police after she was confirmed.
Just after her confirmation, the U.S. Marshals took her to visit her parents' home in New Orleans. "I just looked at my dad, and he said, 'Here are the car keys.' And I just took his car and I drove back and forth on I-10 with the windows down, just feeling like I could enjoy some freedom for a minute."
On whether she's a feminist
In her book, Barrett uses the feminine version of pronouns − "she" and "her" − instead of the masculine version that has long been standard usage.
"I did that when I started writing articles as a law professor," she said. "I think it's cumbersome to do 'she or he,' and I just didn't want to default to 'he,' so I've always defaulted to 'she'" unless for some reason it seems awkward.
Protesters and supporters of the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S. October 12, 2020.
Does she consider herself a feminist?
"Oh, I don't know," she replied. "I think the label 'feminist' means a lot of different things to different people. So I guess I would say I prefer to think of myself as a strong woman and an independent woman who has made a series of choices, some of which are unconventional − having a large family, for example − but feels like I have been free to do and try the things that I set out to do."
Confident the rule of law will survive
Attacks on the judiciary by President Donald Trump and his allies, as well as the president's push to expand his control over more of the government, have caused some legal scholars to warn about a potential constitutional crisis. Even some of Barrett's liberal colleagues have said the Constitution and the rule of law could be at risk.
Barrett, however, doesn't share that concern.
The nation has faced challenging times before, and the government and legal institutions have survived, she said. There's always been "tug and pull and conflict between the three branches" of government, Barrett said, noting the nation is about to celebrate its 250th anniversary.
"I guess my optimism is rooted in the fact that, here we are at 250 years and we have maintained the rule of law for all this time," she said. "And so it's difficult for me to imagine that historical patterns won't continue."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Amy Coney Barrett a feminist? What we learned from our interview
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