Amy Coney Barrett Holding Notes

Submission 9,606

About

Amy Coney Barrett Holding Notes refers to an image of Judge Amy Coney Barrett holding up an empty notepad during a Supreme Court confirmation hearing held on October 13th, 2020. The image went viral as internet users photoshopped various images and phrases onto the notepad, similar to memes like Donald Trump's White Sign.

Origin

On October 13th, 2020, a Supreme Court confirmation hearing was held to deliberate on Judge Amy Coney Barrett's addition to the Supreme Court. At one point in the hearing, John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asks Barrett to show off the notes she's been using during the hearing (shown below). Barrett holds up her notepad, revealing it to be blank, to which Cornyn responds, "That's impressive."

It is not known who photoshopped the image first, but memes featuring Barrett's notes started popping up shortly after the broadcast ended. Some internet users predicted that the image would become a meme once they saw it. For example, on the day of the broadcast, Twitter user nycsouthpaw^[1] quote-retweeted the image from charliespiering, writing, "Start your meme engines." (Shown below).

Spread

News outlets immediately started reporting on the incident, including The Hill,^[2] The Daily Mail,^[3] and CNN.^[4] Various members of the Republican party tweeted out praise for Barrett's ability to defend herself without notes. On October 13th, 2020, Donald Trump Jr.^[5] tweeted an image of Barrett holding her notes up, writing, "Unlike Joe Biden, Amy Coney Barrett doesn't need notes or a teleprompter to remember her positions." (Shown below, left.) His tweet received over 47 thousand likes and 10.8 thousand retweets in a day. On the other end of the political spectrum, supporters of the democratic party reposted the image with mocking captions. Kathy Griffin ^[6] tweeted the image of Barrett accompanied by the caption, "Judge Amy Coney Barrett holds up photo of her brain scan" (shown below, right). The tweet gained over 4.3 thousand likes and 380 retweets in a day.

As the story spread across social media, people started photoshopping images and phrases onto the notepad and sharing them. The For America^[7] organization shared a photoshop of the image on October 13th, garnering over 1.7 thousand likes and 380 retweets in a day (shown below, left). On the same day, Twitter user BuckyIsotope^[8] shared a version of the meme featuring Calvin peeing on the words "Abortion rights," garnering over 200 likes and 39 retweets in a day (shown below, right).

On the same day, multiple news outlets published stories on the image becoming a meme, including USA Today,^[9] Newsweek,^[10] and HITC on October 14th.^[11]