Listening to the Law: How Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett Does Her Job | Peter Robinson | Hoover Institution

Uncommon Knowledge

Hoover Institution

Politics, History, News, News:politics, Science

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

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Summary

How does the Supreme Court really work—and how does one of its youngest justices balance life, law, and seven children? In this in-depth conversation, Justice Amy Coney Barrett discusses her new book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and the Constitution. Barrett explains the principles behind originalism, the Court’s reasoning in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and how the Court reached a decision in landmark cases like Casa de Maryland v. United States and handled a debate over the major questions doctrine. Barrett also opens up about her clerkship with Justice Antonin Scalia, how the Court builds consensus, why stare decisis matters, and how her faith and family life shape her character—but not her judicial reasoning. With the discussion ranging from the Warren Court to the Roberts Court, from Roe v. Wade to Dobbs, this is a very candid and illuminating conversation with a sitting Supreme Court justice. Subscribe to Uncommon Knowledge at hoover.org/uk

Transcript

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0:00.0	How does the Supreme Court do its work, and how does a justice with a family of seven children
0:05.7	do hers? Justice Amy Coney-Barritt on Uncommon Knowledge Now.
0:20.0	Welcome to Uncommon Knowledge. I'm Peter Robinson. A native of New Orleans, Justice Amy Coney-Barritt, is a graduate of Rhodes College and the Notre Dame Law School. After law school, she clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Lawrence Silberman and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Then she returned to Notre Dame to spend a decade and a half as a law professor.
0:40.3	In 2017, President Trump nominated her to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals,
0:45.3	and in 2020, President Trump nominated her to the Supreme Court.
0:50.3	Justice Barrett's new book, Listening to the Law, Reflections on the Court and the Constitution.
0:57.4	Justice Barrett, thank you for joining us today.
0:59.3	Thank you for having me.
1:00.4	We're in the Hoover Institution offices because the Supreme Court is a limited use because of the government shutdown.
1:06.3	So thank you for making the trip to us.
1:08.3	No, no, no, my pleasure. I'm sorry I couldn't host you at the court.
1:12.9	You've gotten this question over and over again, as you've been talking about your book,
1:16.1	seven children, and it's not as if your husband stays at home.
1:20.6	He has a big career as a litigator, and litigators are real lawyers.
1:24.5	They stand up in court and say, objection, Your Honor. So who made breakfast this
1:29.4	morning? Oh, cereal. Serial? The kids came for, yes. One memory that my children have of COVID
1:35.4	that they love very much is because we were all home all the time was big breakfast, hot breakfast.
1:41.0	So the kids make their own? Yes. Now our youngest is 13. So they, I mean, he has a down, so we do make his breakfast,
1:47.4	but everybody else gets their own breakfast.
1:49.3	All right. We'll come back to how you do it.
1:54.2	Originalism, listening to the law. People sometimes describe originalism as a search for
1:59.7	the framers' intent.
	...

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