Donald Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has rejected the idea that the country is in a constitutional crisis over its handling of Trump administration cases.
Barrett dismissed concerns about the president’s attacks on the judiciary, which have coincided with the Supreme Court frequently ruling in Trump’s favor.
She was speaking at a New York event to promote her lucrative new book, Listening to the Law, which celebrates overturning the abortion rights case Roe v. Wade.
“I think the Constitution is alive and well,” Barrett told Bari Weiss at the Thursday event hosted by the Free Press, via Politico.
“I think that our country remains committed to the rule of law. I think we have functioning courts. I think a constitutional crisis—we would clearly be in one if the rule of law crumbles. But that is not the place where we are.”
Barrett, who was nominated by Trump to the conservative majority bench in 2020, made the remarks after multiple federal judges took the unprecedented step of criticizing the nation’s highest court for siding with the president’s hardline agenda rather than supporting the lower courts.
Ten judges told NBC News they were frustrated that the Supreme Court has repeatedly overturned lower court decisions involving Trump with little or no explanation. They accused SCOTUS of “undermining” the lower courts and making it appear as though judges are biased against the president by continually throwing out their rulings.
Public trust in the Supreme Court has also plummeted, particularly after Barrett and the other conservative justices voted to overturn the landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade.
A Pew Research survey found that more Americans now have an unfavorable view of the court (50 percent) than a favorable one (48 percent). The court’s approval rating has also dropped 22 points since August 2020, when it stood at 70 percent.
On stage, Barrett insisted that the Supreme Court “does operate with integrity,” while acknowledging that it may not “get it right” every time. “I do think Americans should trust that the court is trying to get it right,” she said, via NBC News.
Barrett’s insistence that the court is not contributing to a constitutional crisis drew swift pushback on social media.
“Being in a constitutional crisis would be better than where we are right now,” UCLA School of Law professor Blake Emerson wrote on Bluesky.
“It would mean there was actually meaningful constitutional resistance to Trump (from, say, the court Justice Barrett sits on). Instead, we’re just in an increasingly tight authoritarian grip with the other branches supine.”
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie added, “Of course she doesn’t. The (Republican) president is rightfully, by her lights, an elected dictator. Trump is doing nothing that the Constitution does not give him the power to do, according to her and her republican colleagues.”
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