Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett will stand by her consequential vote to overturn Roe v. Wade in her upcoming memoir, “Listening to the Law,” set to be released on Sept. 9.
Barrett, who originally scored a $2 million advance for the book, writes that the 1973 Supreme Court decision, which enshrined a constitutional right to abortion, “came at a cost” and did not reflect the will of the American people, according to an exclusive CNN report on the memoir.
Barrett cast one of six votes in favor of upholding a Mississippi law that banned most abortion procedures after 15 weeks of pregnancy in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. She also cast one of the deciding five concurring opinions to use the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Chief Justice John Roberts was the only conservative-leaning justice to write a concurring opinion in which he agreed with the decision to uphold the Mississippi law, but not to overturn Roe.
Barrett, a devout Catholic and member of the group People of Praise, faced a confirmation hearing riddled with questions about her faith, her personal beliefs, and abortion rights after President Donald Trump nominated her to fill former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s vacant seat in 2020.
In the exclusive CNN piece, reporter Joan Biskupic writes that Barrett reveals she intensely reflected over the Dobbs decision and never thought the court should have granted the constitutional right to abortion in the first place.
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Barrett’s publisher, Sentinel imprint of Penguin Random House, describes the memoir as “a glimpse of her journey to the Court and an account of her approach to the Constitution” in the published book description. The description also says Barrett “invites readers to wrestle with originalism and to embrace the rich heritage of” the U.S. Constitution.
The Supreme Court justice and mother of seven will begin her book tour this month, making in-person stops at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Tuesday, Sept. 9.