Much has been written about Judge Amy Coney Barrett in the lead-up to her confirmation hearings that began on Monday morning, with the press and Democrats scrutinizing her relationship with her faith, her family of nine, her length of time on the bench, and the suitability of her nomination less than a month before a presidential election. It has been a process that has revealed both a rudimentary lack of understanding of people of faith by both the press and Democrats and a lapse in memory from the same people who praised and covered Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the court in 2010 (Kagan had never served as a judge).
Despite how close it is to the election, polling shows that nearly half of the country believes the Senate should confirm Barrett to the Supreme Court — an increase of 9 percentage points in the most recent Morning Consult/Politico poll. Furthermore, a 43% plurality says the nomination should be covered immediately, with no need to wait to see if President Trump wins the election.
But not much has been written about who Barrett is as a person, particularly as a sister and a co-worker — especially through the eyes of a sister (she is one of six girls and one boy), as well as a fellow clerk who worked alongside her (she clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia during the 1998 term).
Barrett has five sisters and one brother. Megan Coney Edwards, one of Barrett’s younger sisters, spoke with the Washington Examiner about their unique relationship and Sunday dinners at their grandparents’ house. Traci Lovitt clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor during the same term in which Barrett clerked for Scalia, and she spoke with the Washington Examiner about working with Barrett and their long runs along the National Mall after grueling days at the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court law clerks assist the justices in their analysis of cases. “Obviously, the decision-making is exclusively the justices, but the clerks can help on researching additional issues and giving their opinions. And a lot of times, the justices might have clerks have open debates to hear both sides. So, we’re really there to assist the justices in any way they need to decide a case,” Lovitt explained. She’s now a Jones Day partner who lives in New York.
All of the clerks are in one building, with every justice having at least one clerk looking at the same case. That means a lot of court discussion among the clerks as they work through legal issues.
Lovitt said as clerks think through those cases and think out the various positions, there is a lot of internal discussion among the clerks. “We’ll talk to each other and think about how each of us are thinking about a case or an issue to really test our own knowledge and just be better informed about the various cases of the court.”
The cases that come before the Supreme Court are the most difficult cases and the ones on which reasonable people can disagree, said Lovitt, “So, there is a lot of work involved and lot of cross-argument and cross-discussion, so that we can help better prepare the justices.”
Lovitt said in discussions and lively arguments with Barrett, she quickly found an insight into how Barrett thinks and how rigorous her analysis is. “My assessment of Amy was that she was very curious intellectually. And she had this uncanny ability that set her apart from the clerks that year. She takes really complex issues and distills them down to their essence, and that is something you can’t learn,” she said. “And she had the ability to cut through all the noise in some of these cases and say, ‘Look, there’s really two issues here. It’s this, and it’s this. These are the things we need to focus on.’ And without any predisposition whatsoever, she would be very smart and thoughtful and fair about those two issues.”
“She was one of the only, maybe the only clerk that year who had the respect of everyone, regardless of chamber, regardless of legal philosophy,” said Lovitt. “She was admired by everyone.”
Lovitt says Barrett was both kind and empathetic. “And when we talked to her, you knew she was being honest in her view of the law, honest in her analysis, and that she was unbelievably smart, which is what led to this uniform admiration.”
Edwards said one of the first things she really admired about her sister was Barrett’s gracious reaction when she became the first of her siblings to get a car. “You know, with seven kids growing up, when we went to college, when we got our licenses, it wasn’t just an automatic ‘here’s a great, new car for you’ from our parents,” she said. Instead, it was a 1977 Buick Le Sabre. As Edwards describes it, it was a doozy.
“It was terrible. It was two-toned with an orange and brown racer stripe down the middle. She drove in college, through law school, and a little bit beyond. It had a horn that sounded like a train,” Edwards said. “During that time, she nannied for a well-known family in Memphis, and that’s the car she drove the children to soccer and all their activities. She’d pull up to their house in this brown and orange car with a racer stripe, and she drove it, proudly and humbly, all the way through her law school and when she first worked in D.C.”
The close-knit Coney family was based in Metairie, Louisiana, the very first suburb right outside of New Orleans to the west. Every Sunday was spent at their grandparents’ home for supper, as was every holiday. Cousins were like siblings, and family vacations included aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins. “People used to think it was some sort of camp or something going on when they would see all of us together playing games at the beach because there were so many of us,” she said. “Even though we saw each other very often, just those summers and those memories had a big impact on our lives and has contributed to how close we all remain — despite the fact that we are literally spread from coast to coast.”
Edwards said there was “shock and awe” among the siblings when Barrett’s nomination was announced. “That soon became pride and hope — hope for her, yes, but also for our country. I think Amy has a really amazing ability for unity, and we live in such a divided time right now,” she said.
Edwards said they are all able to go to Barrett’s confirmation hearings. “We’re all at least going to be there for some portion of the time to be able to support her. We all made it happen. And yeah, it’s just an amazing thing, something we’re very proud of and treasure.”
Edwards doesn’t expect any of the siblings will spend much time watching the social media response to the hearings. “I think that we are fairly conservative in our use of social media, anyway. It’s a great avenue for keeping in touch with far-flung family and friends, but we’re not big posters anyway. So, I think it was no big deal for us to just kind of hang back, because we don’t really typically do much posting. It’s more of a relationship tool, rather than anything else.”
