Amy Coney Barrett Biography

Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed in October of 2017 as a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Three years later she was confirmed as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Coney Barrett grew up outside of New Orleans, had a stellar undergraduate career at Rhodes College in Memphis, then graduated from the law school at the University of Notre Dame in 1997.

Coney Barrett was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia from 1998 to 1999, and she worked in private practice before becoming a law professor at Notre Dame in 2010. (While in private practice, Coney Barrett did legal work for the Republican Party in Bush v. Gore, the lawsuit in which the Supreme Court decided the 2000 presidential election in favor of the Republican candidate, George W. Bush.).

Nominated to the Appeals Court by President Trump in May of 2017, Coney Barrett was confirmed five months later, amid concerns that her religious and political beliefs were in conflict with settled law.

President Donald Trump nominated Coney Barrett for a position on the Supreme Court on September 26, 2020, a week after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

She was confirmed along party lines, 52-48, on October 26, 2020.

Named to the Supreme Court just prior to a close presidential election, the nakedly political confirmation process risked undermining her credibility on future court decisions, and cast her in the role of Republican party tool.