'MAGA backlash' against Justice Barrett reaching 'new level of vitriol': conservative

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Defenders of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment breathed a major sigh of relief when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling in Trump v. Barbara, invalidated President Donald Trump's executive order calling for an end to birthright citizenship. The decision found the High Court's three Democratic appointees (Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson) agreeing with Chief Justice John Roberts (who wrote the majority opinion) and Justice Amy Coney Barrett (a Trump appointee) that birthright citizenship enjoys constitutional protection. Many MAGA Republicans are furious with Barrett, and Never Trump conservative David French believes that MAGA hatred of her is growing increasingly "dangerous."

As Barrett's critics on the far right see it, the arch-conservative justice betrayed Trump with her vote in Trump v. Slaughter.

In an early July conversation with fellow New York Times opinion journalist Emily Bazelon, French warned, "The MAGA backlash against Barrett is out of control. The justices already face threats. She was apparently swatted at her home in May, but this new level of vitriol — including attacking her multiracial family (she has adopted children from Haiti) — is making me nervous. In a word, MAGA has focused its fury on Barrett — some people even call her Amy 'Commie' Barrett — and that can be very, very dangerous."

Although Barrett — a self-described "originalist" and admirer of the late Justice Antonin Scalia — is far from a liberal and isn't a libertarian like retired Justice Anthony Kennedy (a Ronald Reagan appointee), she has, at times, showed a willingness to part company with MAGA.

Bazelon told French, "Barrett is a staunch conservative, but she has her own ideas. In her own way, she is as resolute about sticking to them as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who writes a lot of solo opinions."

The conservative French and more liberal Bazelon agreed that Trump v. Slaughter was much closer than it should have been.

French told Bazelon, "I'm both relieved at the outcome and worried that we won't move on from this debate. I'm concerned that the narrowness of the majority (there were only five justices who upheld birthright citizenship without reservations) will lead to a new Roe v. Wade-style litmus test for judges on the MAGA right. Will they try to nominate and confirm only those judges and justices who agree with Justice Clarence Thomas' lengthy dissent?"

Bazelon responded, "That is a truly dismaying possibility. The United States has benefited from the open arms of birthright citizenship in so many ways. It's the Statue of Liberty come to life. It helps immigrants integrate. Once you are born here, you are an American. The successive generations are an amazing engine of social mobility and accomplishment, in a way that other countries don’t match, because we have this rule. It prevents isolated enclaves of guest workers."

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