In a week when the D. C. Circuit issued no opinions, we find ourselves with some time on our hands. Given the dire warnings that our addiction to screens is creating a post-literate society with its attendant personal and social pathologies, this may be a good time to read a book. My recommendation is Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s newly-published, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution. Full disclosure: I am an admirer of Justice Barrett. I testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of her confirmation to the Supreme Court. 

The entire book is a great read, but I especially enjoyed Chapter Two, “The Commission and the Oath,” and Chapter Three, “Working Together.” Together, they present one of the finest descriptions that I’ve ever read about how a judge goes about deciding cases. They reject the cynical and inaccurate view that judges are merely partisans in robes. If I were King, these chapters would be required reading for every President, every Senator, and every citizen.

A final note. During Justice Barrett’s recent interview with Bari Weiss, she was asked whether the nation is in the midst of a constitutional crisis – a frequent question these days and one worth considering. Justice Barrett answered that we are not, and the media seized upon that answer as newsworthy, which it was. 

The coverage of the interview I read, including Bari Weiss’s own summary, failed to heed Justice Ginsburg’s first rule of textual interpretation: keep reading. What Justice Barrett said next is in my view the money quote from the interview. “[W]e need to learn to compromise and talk to one another and move forward past our disagreement to see one another as people and as fellow Americans and citizens. And that is the way to avert a constitutional crisis.” (emphasis added). I concur.