Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s remarks in court on Thursday have sparked MAGA backlash online, with some saying President Donald Trump made a “huge mistake” appointing her to the bench.
The nation’s highest court was hearing arguments about whether lower courts have the authority to block Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, which ensures that children born in the U.S. are citizens regardless of their parents’ status.
During the hearing, Justice Coney Barrett questioned the solicitor general over the Trump administration’s approach to complying with court rulings.
Why It Matters
Coney Barrett, who was nominated by Trump in 2020, has emerged as a more centrist judge than expected in certain Supreme Court cases and has been criticized by Trump supporters for voting against her conservative colleagues in the past.
Relations between the executive and the judiciary have been tense as of late. In March, after President Donald Trump urged the removal of a judge who ruled against his deportation policies, Chief Justice John Roberts, in a rare statement, criticized these types of calls, without naming Trump directly, saying that impeachment is “not an appropriate response” to disagreeing with a judge.
What To Know
Once again, online MAGA proponents have called Justice Amy Coney Barrett as “a radical liberal,” saying she was disloyal to Trump.
Justices, who are given a life appointment, typically are seen as either conservative or liberal depending on which president nominated them. Barrett has more often than not voted along conservative lines, including for the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, but has sided with the Court’s three liberal justices in opposing the majority’s decision to allow the administration to continue deporting alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
On Thursday, during oral arguments over birthright citizenship, Barrett asked Solicitor General D. John Sauer whether the Trump administration “wanted to reserve its right to maybe not follow a Second Circuit precedent, say, in New York, because you might disagree with the opinion?”
Solicitor General Sauer said the “general practice” is to “respect those precedents,” but “there are circumstances when it is not a categorical practice.” Barrett then asked if he meant he believes that is the “general practice” of only the Trump administration or the federal government.
Sauer replied that he understands it to be the “long-standing practice of the Department of Justice.”
“Really?” responded Barrett.
“That we generally, as it was phrased to me, generally respect circuit precedent but not necessarily in every case and some examples might be a situation where we’re litigating to try to get that circuit precedent overruled and so forth,” he responded.
“So you’re still saying generally? And you still think that it’s generally the long-standing policy of the federal government to take that approach?” she said following another back-and-forth. Sauer replied in the affirmative.
One X (formerly Twitter) account user called “Spitfire” who has “America First” in the bio, wrote: “Justice Barrett was a huge mistake. Her contempt for the Trump Administration is obvious in her line of questioning.”
The Undercurrent, who describes themselves as “conservative with a sense of humor,” wrote: “Oh Amy Coney Barrett…. We had such high hopes.”
What People Are Saying
MAGA influencer Cash Loren on X: “Amy Coney Barrett (ACB) is proving once again she may the…worst SCOTUS pick ever by a Republican. She has a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court because of Donald Trump. Yet you can hear her disdain for the Trump administration.”
Former Federal Prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek: “Justice Barrett is a Trump appointee and a conservative. But her question reflects her concern about the separation of powers and the executive’s respect for judicial authority, a co-equal branch of government.”
Democratic strategist Max Burns wrote on X: “Trump Solicitor General D. John Sauer tells Justice Amy Coney Barrett that Trump ‘generally’ tries to respect federal court decisions but he has the ‘right’ to disregard legal opinions he personally disagrees with. Coney Barrett seems to be in disbelief.”
What Happens Next
The court will hand down its ruling in the birthright citizenship case later this year. Meanwhile, several of Trump’s other executive orders are facing legal challenges and making their way through the court. Barrett’s decisions have become a key swing vote in some of these cases and she could continue wielding that power.
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