Barrett’s critics from the right have got her wrong
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
It isn’t surprising that a Supreme Court justice who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade , end affirmative action in college admissions, expand gun rights and allow states to ban puberty blockers for minors would receive a lot of criticism, some of it vicious. What’s strange is that the angriest words lately are coming from commentators on the right who agree with those votes.
Podcaster Matt Walsh, posting on X on June 30, called Justice Amy Coney Barrett “a DEI hire,” one who is “little better than” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, adding : “The worst Supreme Court Justices of all time have all been women. That’s just a fact.”
The same day , also on X, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) wrote, “Barrett should be removed from the Bench.” White House aide Stephen Miller on Fox News accused the justice of having “decided to cave to the radical left.”
President Donald Trump began disparaging Barrett after the court ruled in February that Congress had not given him the authority to impose tariffs based on a supposed national emergency. He said that Barrett and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, two of his appointees who voted with the majority, had embarrassed their families and “ shown so little respect to our Country.” He complained as well that they went out of their way to show their independence from him.
Barrett-bashers have focused on two other decisions from this term. Barrett wrote a majority opinion holding that Congress had allowed states to count mail-in ballots received after Election Day. And — in the case that has generated the most outrage on the right — she agreed that when illegal immigrants or foreign visitors give birth in the United States, the Constitution grants the children automatic citizenship.
None of that proves that Barrett and the four colleagues who joined the majority opinion got the legal issues right. But it means they weren’t as blatantly wrong as the toughest attacks assume. And while many of the opponents of the decision have spoken as though it puts the U.S. on an inevitable path to doom, the political branches retain many means of combating illegal immigration and birth tourism.
Far from being one of the worst justices in history — which would put her in the company of Chief Justice Roger Taney, the author of Dred Scott — she is among the best. Even if conservatives were to judge her on the basis of how frequently she frustrates their policy objectives, she is nothing like Anthony M. Kennedy, a Republican appointee who often voted with the liberal justices on cases involving abortion, gay rights and the environment. Nor is she like David Souter, another Republican appointee, who voted with liberals on, well, everything.
A new attack on Barrett surfaced after she testified to Congress that Supreme Court justices need more security: Supposedly she was admitting that threats against her were influencing her judicial decisions. She, of course, said nothing of the kind.
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Ain’t nothing T-MAGA likes more than dining on real conservatives.
forget the constitution, maga doesn't like it when any of it's membership won't goosestep in unison. especially when they've been gifted power by the chosen one ...
I wish she could have just recused herself on the abortion issue instead of voting her religious beliefs which do not necessarily apply to everyone else.
She obfuscated during her confirmation hearings without lying, but it was e distiction without a difference.
Otherwise she has been decent so far.
Aren't SCOTUS judges supposed to be independent of the Executive Branch?
I learned that all 3 branches are equal and not one of them is more powerful than the other
Checks and Balances