She’s the mother of all nominees
Legal eagle Barrett has brood of 7
Judge Amy Coney Barrett is a legal scholar, a devout Catholic — and the first mother to serve on the Supreme Court in need of a babysitter.
“The president has asked me to become the ninth justice,” Barrett said Saturday. “And as it happens, I’m used to being in a group of nine — my family.”
The 48-year old jurist has a brood of seven with her husband Jesse Barrett. Two children, Vivian, 16, and John Peter, 13, were adopted as toddlers in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Benjamin, 8, has Down syndrome. The others are Emma, 19; Tess, 16, Liam, 11, and Juliet, 9.
After announcing his nomination of their mother to the land’s highest court at the White House’s Rose Garden, President Trump invited them up to the podium. Dressed in their Sunday best, the kids gladly obliged, although Ben seemed a little apprehensive.
Barrett herself is the oldest of seven children, born in New Orleans to Mike Coney, a former Shell Oil lawyer, and his wife, Linda, a homemaker.
After attending an all-girls Catholic school in Louisiana, she majored in English at tiny Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn. Barrett won a full scholarship to study law at Notre Dame, according to SCOTUSblog, and graduated with highest honors.
It was in South Bend, Ind., where she met her future husband, a fellow law student who went on to serve as an Indiana prosecutor for 13 years.
“I hit the jackpot when I married Jesse,” Barrett once said. “We have been married 18 years, with each year better than the last.”
During her 2018 investiture to the federal bench, her hubby returned the sentiment in a speech: “It is humbling to be married to Amy Barrett. You can’t outwork Amy. I’ve also learned you can’t outfriend Amy.”
Barrett has long maintained that her religious beliefs do not enter into her judicial deliberations, but her reported membership in People of Praise, an ecumenical Christian community, has fueled Democrats’ doubts. Critics have characterized it as a cult that subjugates women, pointing to its past use of the biblical term “handmaids” to describe female leaders.
But the group was one of many established after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s to encourage the Catholic laity to form small communities for prayer and mutual support. The group is well within the Catholic mainstream and has received the blessing of every pope, including progressive Pope Francis.
Barrett returned to Notre Dame Law School as a professor in 2002, and spent 15 years there. Respected and well-liked, more than 400 students and dozens of colleagues endorsed her when she was nominated to the federal bench three years ago.