Amy Coney Barrett told Bishop Robert Barron that her Catholic faith grounds her personally but does not determine her rulings. She advised young Catholics considering public service to "discern" their vocation and remain rooted amid pressure. Barrett, confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2020 as the fifth woman justice, has faced scrutiny over religion's influence, including a notable 2017 exchange with Sen. Dianne Feinstein. In her book, she describes voting to affirm Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence despite personal opposition to capital punishment.
Amy Coney Barrett: My Catholic Faith Grounds Me, But It Doesn’t Decide My Court Rulings
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett speaks at the Reagan Library on Sept. 9, 2025, in Simi Valley, California.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett told Bishop Robert Barron that her Catholic faith helps her stay grounded amid the pressures of public life, but she emphasized it does not determine the legal conclusions she reaches on the bench.
On an episode of "Bishop Barron Presents" released Sunday, Barrett was asked what advice she would give a young Catholic considering public service. Recounting a conversation with a Notre Dame law student, she encouraged discernment: if public life is a vocation, it should not become the most important thing in one’s life.
"If you do feel like this is a vocation and something you're called to do, I think it can never be the most important thing," Barrett said. "Being grounded in your faith and who you are . . . helps you not be tossed like a ship everywhere, because there are enormous pressures."
Barrett added, "My faith does not inform the substance of the decisions that I make. It emphatically does not, but I think it grounds me as a person. It's who I am, and it helps me keep my role in public life in perspective so I can remain the person I hope to be despite those pressures."
Background And Controversy
Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2020 and became only the fifth woman to serve on the high court. Nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her confirmation contributed to a conservative majority on the bench.
The Supreme Court building.
A former Notre Dame law professor and a devout Catholic, Barrett has faced questions about whether her faith influences her judicial decisions. During her 2017 confirmation to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein said the "dogma" of Barrett's beliefs "lives loudly within you," a remark that drew national attention and prompted Barrett to stress she would decide cases according to the rule of law and would not impose personal convictions on the law.
Judicial Philosophy And A Difficult Vote
Barrett has written about navigating the tension between personal conviction and judicial duty. In an excerpt from her book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution, she describes personally opposing capital punishment yet voting in 2022 to affirm the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. She explained that bending the law to match her moral views would improperly substitute her judgment for that of the democratic process.
"I found the vote distasteful to cast, and I wish our system worked differently," she wrote. "Yet I had no doubt that voting to affirm the sentence was the right thing for me to do."
Barrett was also one of six justices in the majority that overturned Roe v. Wade in the 2022 Dobbs decision, a landmark ruling that further intensified public scrutiny of the Court and its members.
Whether discussing vocation, judicial restraint, or difficult verdicts, Barrett framed her faith as a source of personal stability rather than a roadmap for legal outcomes.
