By Sophie Lipp, 13,
KidScoop Media Correspondent.
Have you ever met a real-life Supreme Court Justice? I have! Her name is Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and I had the opportunity to interview her about her time on the bench and her new book, Listening to the Law, at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA. Justice Barrett, sat down with me before the event. When I met her, she was so nice and warm. She has seven kids of her own, and I think that’s why she was so kind to me.
The first thing I asked her was whether she dreamed of being a Supreme Court Justice, particularly while she was a law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, and whether the dynamic was different now when she attended Scalia clerk reunions.
“What a great question! No one’s asked me that. It does. It feels a little odd, I have to admit, because I’ve always attended the reunions as a clerk, and now I’m the host because you have to have a Justice host the events at the court. And so now, I have to be the point person to host those reunions, so it does feel different.”
We then talked about an interesting detail from her book about her relationship with her staff. She wrote that she and her clerks like to discuss the books they are currently reading and the shows they watch, so I asked her what she was currently reading and watching. It turns out she’s reading The Woman Who Smashed Codes, a book about Elizabeth Smith Friedman, a cryptanalyst during World War II who helped invent the modern science of code breaking. She highly recommended I read it! She and her clerks were all catching up on episodes of “Slow Horses” on Apple TV.
I then asked her if she had a favorite former Justice. She immediately said, “Justice Scalia,” with a big smile, saying he taught her so much during the time she was on his staff. Speaking again of staff, it was interesting to hear how she looked for clerks for her own office. She talked about wanting to hire smart people, but also people who are willing to speak up and share their opinions, even when they differ from hers: “Otherwise, they’re no good to me.” Justice Barrett does a lot of interesting events with her clerks, including going to museums, the National Archives, and even going to the Smithsonian zoo!
I was also very curious about her thoughts on artificial intelligence (AI) and the possible uses of it in court cases. She replied that the technology is indeed evolving quickly, but due to its lack of confidentiality, they do not use it for court cases. Some lawyers already use it, and she thinks they might start using it more for research. Fun fact: the court doesn’t have outside internet access!
We discussed a variety of additional topics: including her advice to young women aspiring to a law career (Whatever you put your mind to, you can do!), what she likes to cook (her husband usually makes dinner, but she made chicken fajitas the previous evening), her ability to discuss high profile cases appearing before her court (she can describe the case, but nothing more) and if it was intimidating to fill shoes of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (a little) and more. It was interesting to hear about what she does in her limited free time, how she raises her seven children while working on the bench, and her favorite restaurants as a New Orleans native. We even talked about whether she was a sun or snow person. She’s a sun person. I am, too.
Finally, I asked what surprised her when she joined the Supreme Court.
“It was a hard adjustment to get used to being recognized in public and having to have security.”
When our interview was over, I thanked her for her time. She signed my book and told me my questions were “very impressive.” That made me feel like I was on top of the world! It was an honor to meet her, and a day I will never forget!