WATCH: Amy Coney Barrett on whether there should be ethical guidelines for Supreme Court spouses

Justice Amy Coney Barrett said at an April 4 event, “I don’t think most spouses would be very happy” about the idea of Supreme Court guidelines that detailed what working spouses of justices should and should not do.

“Certainly when I try to give my husband guidelines about what to do or not to do in the house, even, that does not go over very well,” Barrett added in response to a question about whether she thought the Supreme Court should create such guidelines. The response prompted laughs from the audience.

During a talk Monday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Barrett addressed how she and her husband, a practicing lawyer, split child care duties at home. She said they deal with the same challenges other couples “who are both working and have children at home always face,” adding that they take extra care to avoid professional conflicts.

“It is something that we are very conscious of and very careful about,” Barrett said.

The statement came at a time of renewed debate over whether sitting Supreme Court justices should have to follow a code of ethics, guidelines that as of now don’t exist. Some Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have called for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6, after several media outlets reported that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the sitting justice’s wife, sent multiple text messages to Mark Meadows while he was chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, advocating for efforts to overturn the 2020 election. (The texts were part of materials Meadows turned over to the House committee investigating the Jan.6 attack before he ceased cooperation).

Video courtesy of Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation

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