[8] On 11 December 2019 Cartabia succeeded Giorgio Lattanzi as President of the Constitutional Court, becoming the first woman to hold the position.

[6] On 13 February 2021, she became Minister of Justice in the Draghi cabinet, a national unity government, succeeding Alfonso Bonafede.

On 28 April she obtained the extradition to Italy of seven former left-wing terrorists of the period of the lead years, who had found protection in France due to the Mitterrand doctrine.

On 8 July 2021, the Council of Ministers launched the reform of the criminal justice system, spearheaded by Cartabia herself, in collaboration with commission of experts chaired by the former president of the constitutional court Giorgio Lattanzi.

[12][13] On 11 September 2021, she was appointed by Pope Francis as an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Cartabia was made Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on 24 October 2011.