A dissent by Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a case concerning President Donald Trump‘s use of a wartime-era deportation law has triggered a wave of backlash from prominent conservative commentators and online supporters of the former president.
Barrett, appointed to the Supreme Court by Trump in 2020, joined the Court’s three liberal justices in opposing the majority’s decision to allow the administration to continue deporting alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the Trump administration’s conduct “poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law.”
While the unsigned majority opinion allowed the deportations to continue for now, it ruled that individuals must be given a chance to challenge their removal under due process—a point the American Civil Liberties Union also claimed as a victory. Trump, meanwhile, hailed the decision as “a great day for justice in America.”
Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty
Online backlash was swift. Conservative influencer Rogan O’Handley, known as DC_Draino, wrote on X (former Twitter): “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.”
Major MAGA figure Catturd, who has 3.6 million followers on X, posted: “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 wrote on X in response to the decision: “Appointing a woman, namely Amy Coney Barrett, was a huge mistake.”