One of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court picks turned against him on Monday by joining liberal justices in an effort to limit his authority to deport illegal immigrants suspected of being linked to violent South American gangs.
MAGA conservatives are furious with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whom Trump nominated and who was confirmed during his first term. Barrett briefly became a right-wing sensation when she displayed her blank notebook during her Senate confirmation hearing, demonstrating that she had no prepared talking points. Now, Barrett is facing backlash from conservative commentators who accuse her of trying to restrict President Trump’s power to deport illegal immigrants under the wartime Alien Enemies Act.
She joined three liberal justices in dissent, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that the administration’s actions “pose an extraordinary threat to the rule of law.” A majority of the justices reversed a lower court’s decision that had temporarily halted U.S. flights deporting illegal immigrants to mega-prisons in El Salvador and other countries of origin, although the permission to resume such flights now comes with additional restrictions.
Going forward, every deportee must be granted due process, and the ruling leaves open the possibility for future legal challenges—provided they are filed in Texas, where the plaintiffs are held, rather than in an improper venue as was the case before the high court. Rogan O’Handley, known as DC_Draino, wrote about Barrett, “While this Supreme Court victory for Trump allowing him to deport cartels is huge, it was only a 5-4 decision. Guess who joined the 3 liberal Justices to keep cartels here in America? Amy Coney Barrett.”
Catturd, another MAGA influencer who boasts 3.6 million followers on the platform, agreed with O’Hanley’s assessment, writing: “There’s nobody I have less respect for in the entire country besides Dr. Fauci than Amy Commie Barrett – Trump appointed her and gave her her dream job and complimented her and praised her – and she’s been an ungrateful, backstabbing POS since day one. She got a million dollar Liberal book deal within weeks and her whole goal in Life is to be praised by The New York Times. Weak, coward, sellout, fraud. She’s everything that’s wrong with this country. She’s an Absolute disgusting fraud.”
MAGA poster Kim ‘Katie’ USA, a Vietnam-born conservative, wrote on X in response to the decision: “Appointing a woman, namely Amy Coney Barrett, was a huge mistake.” One of her followers replied: “The bigger issue is that Barrett hates Trump.” Conservative commentator Jeff Younger wrote on X: “All the men on the Court voted the law. All the women, including Amy Coney Barrett, voted their feelings.”
Another conservative commentator, Angela Belcamino, wrote on X: “We can all agree that no one likes Supreme Court Justice, Amy Coney Barrett… Am I correct?” One of her followers replied: “She seems to be a wolf in sheep’s wool kinda gal doesn’t she? I’m not sure if she is being led by a dislike of Trump or really was able to get herself branded as a constitutionalist when she really wasn’t.”