MAGA risks losing its edge on the Supreme Court with relentless attacks on Trump judge
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U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett before the luncheon in the Statuary Hall Washington, U.S., January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Conservatives have been on the attack against Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett after she ruled against President Donald Trump's executive order in the birthright citizenship case.
A new Economist/YouGov poll shows that Barrett has the lowest polling of any other justice at a time the High Court itself enjoys only 36 percent approval. It's largely because she never had any support from Democrats and has lost support from Republicans. But when it comes to issues like immigration and citizenship, Republicans knew what they were getting with Barrett.
"Yet, whatever can be said about the GOP’s views in 2020, when Barrett was appointed, Barrett’s views on election law and citizenship are now wildly out of step with an ascendant faction within the Republican Party," wrote Vox justice reporter Ian Millhiser.
Unlike Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, Barrett has been less of a reliable conservative for the right. Millhiser suggested she was more in line with the likes of Chief Justice John Roberts than Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Millhiser compared Barrett to Roberts' vote specifically on saving Obamacare, saying "the [George W.] Bush White House could not have known that, more than a year after Bush left office, Bush’s successor would sign healthcare legislation that the Republican Party hated with supernova-like intensity. And so, Roberts cast the key vote to save most of Obamacare in 2012, even though all four of his Republican colleagues at the time dissented."
But despite the opposition from the GOP, Barrett agreed that birthright citizenship was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. MAGA fans lost it.
Millhiser noted that Vice President JD Vance called birthright citizenship the “dumbest immigration policy in the world.”
“A shockingly wrong opinion,” wrote Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt (Mo). “Justice Barrett joins with the liberal justices to hold that federal election law does not preempt states who allow late mail-in ballots to be counted. This is terrible for election integrity. Another reason we must pass the full SAVE American [sic] Act.”
“Remember Election Day?” said GOP Rep. Abe Hamadeh (Az). “This disastrous SCOTUS decision, authored by Justice Barrett, guarantees we’ll keep drifting away from it — as our sacred elections get bogged down by endless mail-in ballots and never-ending counts.”
Millhiser suggested folks keep an eye on the conservatives out for Barrett, particularly when it comes to allegations that she lacks sufficient fidelity to Trump.
"Future Republican White Houses are more likely to vet any judicial nominee very closely to make sure that they will vote to abolish birthright citizenship, regardless of what the Constitution says," wrote Millhiser.