Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, delivered the 2025 Jeanie Poole O’Shaughnessy Memorial Lecture on Friday, Sept. 12 to a sold-out auditorium in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
The conversation, titled “Listening to the Law” after Justice Barrett’s book released days prior to the lecture, took place in a question-and-answer format. Professor Vincent Philip Muñoz, director of the Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government, moderated the conversation and posed questions from both himself and from the audience.
The tension in the room after Charlie Kirk’s assassination just two days before was immediately addressed in remarks by University President Rev. Robert Dowd, C.S.C., and Muñoz. Fr. Dowd condemned the violence of the recent shootings at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Evergreen High School in Colorado, and Utah Valley University.
“We pride ourselves here at Notre Dame,” he said, “in taking the challenges of our world seriously and doing everything we can to make the world more humane and just. That is in the DNA of Notre Dame, and that is because of our Catholic mission.”
Fr. Dowd then led the auditorium in prayer.
Muñoz’s remarks afterward emphasized the need for civic dialogue.
“Wednesday was an attack on all of us,” he began. “All of us who believe in argument, in debate, in free speech, in the clash of ideas.”
Muñoz added that holding this particular event was necessary “because of our democracy, our ability to govern ourselves as Americans, that will perish if violence silences us,” he said.
After being introduced by Tocqueville Fellow Kathleen Farnan, Justice Barrett was met with an immediate standing ovation. The following conversation broached legal topics such as Justice Barrett’s vision of originalism, criticism from conservatives for not delivering rulings they had hoped for, and the Supreme Court’s recent reliance on the “shadow docket.”
Justice Barrett also remarked on political violence at the beginning of her lecture, specifically calling on the Notre Dame community to foster “civil and collegial” disagreement. She noted that political violence is “the most grotesque symptom” of the problems facing the United States today, “but there are others too – just in online conversations and the way people treat those with whom they disagree.” Justice Barrett then turned to the auditorium and addressed those gathered, encouraging “you at Notre Dame, and especially you students” to “model a different way to be.”
However, much of the discussion focused on Justice Barrett’s personal experience of being a justice: the transition from being a Notre Dame law professor to a nationally recognized figure on the Supreme Court of the United States.
When asked by an audience member about balancing her role as a justice with the care of her seven children, Justice Barrett reflected that “the most important legacy I can leave is my children,” and that “moms and dads should think that way about building their families … children should not take the backseat to career advancement.”
Justice Barrett also noted that it is a “much friendlier world” for those who would like to step out of the workplace when children are young and return to it later. She also acknowledged her husband Jesse in an earlier question, describing him as “not only an equal partner,” but “at this season of our life, contributing even more to running the home front than I am.”
Justice Barrett responded to a question about the process of the “shadow” or emergency docket, which has been used particularly in recent Court cases. She explained that in contrast to the 4,000 petitions for certiorari that the Court receives each year, applications for the emergency docket “come up on an entirely different track” and “involve litigation that's still ongoing … So we're not reviewing final decisions and we're not giving final answers.”
In several recent cases, Justice Barrett said, “the administration” has approached the Court saying, “we accept that … if the policy is illegal … we'll be enjoined, but in this interim period, because litigation can take a long time, we think we should be free to pursue the policy.” The Court’s role here is to “ask ourselves” whether it is “likely that they will succeed” and if they are “really going to suffer irreparable harm if they don't get an injunction ... but the important take-home point is that it is not the final judgment of the Court.”
Justice Barrett also responded to those on the right who have criticized her rulings on certain cases. "If you want different results,” she said, “turn to the democratic process.”
She noted that her book describes “how the 27th amendment was actually ratified because of the work of a college student from the University of Texas. So if you want results, you turn to your fellow citizens for results. For courts, we're about applying the law.”
Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs Mary Gallagher attended the lecture and said she “admired Justice Barrett’s ability to balance the demands of a role that requires firm judgments with a genuine spirit of friendship and understanding."
"Her attention to civility felt especially meaningful in today’s climate — and serves as a powerful example for our students of how principled disagreement can coexist with mutual respect and even compassion," Gallagher said.
Following the lecture, Justice Barrett was honored at the CCCG’s annual Statesmanship Dinner. The center distributed awards to a number of people in the Notre Dame community. Junior Lucy Spence received the 2025 Publius Award; Luke Thompson '24 was awarded the Citizenship Award; Christina Bambrick, the Filip Family Assistant Professor of Constitutional Studies, was awarded the Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship. Finally, the Young Alumni Award for Public Service Special Assistant was awarded to Mary Salvi '15.
Ted Heraty, a junior in the Tocqueville Fellowship, said he felt “blessed to have had the opportunity to meet her."
“Justice Barrett speaking vulnerably about what Notre Dame means to her: a place where she can recharge, have frank conversations about her family and faith with students, and simply feel at home amongst her former peers," he said.
The full recording of Justice Barrett’s remarks can be viewed on our YouTube channel. To stay in touch with the Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government and be the first to know about upcoming events, subscribe to our mailing list here.
The Jeanie Poole O’Shaughnessy Memorial Lecture was established in 2022 after the death of the center’s beloved friend and supporter in 2021 and made possible by Patrick O’Shaughnessy and the O’Shaughnessy Family.
This endowed lecture is designed to connect scholarship and education concerning the ideas and institutions of constitutional government with the principles put into practice by the individuals shaping the civic fabric of our country.
Originally published by at constudies.nd.edu on September 19, 2025.
