Barrett in new book defends overturning Roe v. Wade
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in her upcoming memoir defends the High Court’s decision in 2022 that reversed decades of abortion rights protections, writing that the court had actually gotten “ahead of the American people” with its landmark 1972 Roe v. Wade ruling.
“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,” Barrett wrote in her forthcoming book, according to a report from CNN based on advance excerpts. “In fact, the evidence cuts in the opposite direction. Abortion not only lacked long-standing protection in American law – it had long been forbidden.”
“Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution” is slated to be released next Tuesday through Sentinel Books, a conservative imprint at Penguin Random House. According to The Associated Press, Barrett signed a $2 million publishing deal with Sentinel in 2021.
CNN reported that it “obtained access” to Barrett’s memoir but didn’t interview her for the story prior to its release. Sentinel didn’t immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
The justices ruled 5-4, with Barrett joining the majority, in the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which determined that states should have the final say in their abortion laws.
“Swearing to apply the law faithfully means deciding each case based on my best judgment about what the law is,” Barret wrote in the book, according to CNN. “If I decide a case based on my judgment about what the law should be, I’m cheating.”
Barrett wrote that the “complicated moral debate” about abortion separates it from other contentious issues such as “the rights to marry, have sex, procreate, use contraception.”
Barrett is scheduled to mark the book’s release with an event next week at the Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute in Simi Valley, Calif.
Barrett, 53, was the third of three Supreme Court justices seated during President Trump’s first term. The Senate confirmed her nomination to succeed the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just days before the 2020 presidential election. In the book, she also reportedly provides more insight into how she’s adjusted to the spotlight of the high court.
She had spent time in the private sector and was Notre Dame law professor before Trump tapped her for a lifetime appointment in 2017. She wrote in the upcoming book that she has developed a finer appreciation for how the Supreme Court operates.
“Before I joined the Court, I was sometimes frustrated by an opinion’s cryptic language or its failure to resolve fairly obvious points,” she wrote, based on CNN’s report. “Now I better appreciate that glossing over issues is often deliberate.”
She also reflects on the challenges of the role.
“While the intensity of the challenges faced by the Court ebbs and flows, the challenges themselves will never disappear,” Barrett wrote. “Throughout, the job of every justice is to do his or her best by the law.”