Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s comments during oral arguments on Thursday drew sharp criticism from some in the MAGA movement, with critics online claiming President Donald Trump made a “huge mistake” by appointing her to the Court.
The justices were hearing a case centered on whether lower courts have the authority to block Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, granting automatic U.S. citizenship to children born on American soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status, under a provision of the 14th Amendment.
During the hearing, Justice Amy Coney Barrett pressed the solicitor general with pointed questions about the Trump administration’s handling of and compliance with court rulings.
Coney Barrett, appointed by President Trump in 2020, has at times taken a more centrist stance than many of his supporters anticipated. She has drawn criticism from some on the right for siding against her conservative colleagues in past decisions.
Tensions between the executive and judicial branches have escalated recently. In March, following President Trump’s call to remove a judge who ruled against his deportation policies, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public rebuke. Without naming Trump directly, Roberts stated that impeachment is “not an appropriate response” to disagreeing with a judge’s ruling.
On Thursday during oral arguments, 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?”
Sauer said the “general practice” is to “respect those precedents,” but “there are circumstances when it is not a categorical practice.”
Barrett then asked whether he was suggesting that this was the “general practice” of the Trump administration specifically, or of the federal government as a whole. Sauer responded that it’s his understanding it is the “long-standing practice of the Department of Justice.”
“Really?” Coney Barrett responded.
“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,” the solicitor general 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?” the justice asked, following more back and forth, leading Sauer to respond in the affirmative.
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The line of questioning and the aggressiveness against Sauer drew rebukes from Trump supporters online.
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, which describes itself as “conservative with a sense of humor,” wrote: “Oh Amy Coney Barrett…. We had such high hopes.”
“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,” wrote MAGA influencer Cash Loren.
“And President Trump fought so hard for her,” another X user wrote.
“If she cannot take her emotion out of it & be fair & impartial, she should step down,” said another.
“Fakes everywhere, we’re surrounded,” said another user.
Trump made a comment about the Supreme Court on his Truth Social account, but it wasn’t critical of the justices.
“The Radical Left SleazeBags, which has no cards remaining in its illegal bag of tricks, is, in a very coordinated manner, PLAYING THE REF with regard to the United States Supreme Court. They lost the Election in a landslide, and with it, have totally lost their confidence and reason. They are stone cold CRAZY! I hope the Supreme Court doesn’t fall for the games they play,” he wrote.