MAGA activists have turned against one of President Donald Trump's own appointees to the Supreme Court: Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Appointed by Trump in 2020, Barrett is a staunch conservative who has joined major rulings in which the court has moved U.S. law to the right, including on abortion and affirmative action.
But that's not enough for some of Trump's most aggressive supporters, who think the former Notre Dame Law School professor has been a disappointment. MAGA supporters see what some call an independent streak as a sign she isn't sufficiently aligned with or loyal to Trump.
"She is a rattled law professor with her head up her a--," said Mike Davis, who once clerked at the Supreme Court for Justice Neil Gorsuch and described Barrett as "weak and timid."
Barrett defenders have dismissed the attacks, scoffing at the idea that the justice’s conservatism is defined by how her decisions align with Trump and insisting Barrett won’t be affected by outside criticism. Barrett, reached via the Supreme Court, did not respond to a request for comment.
The anger from Davis and other right-wing personalities with large online followings stems mostly from a couple of recent high-profile, 5-4 decisions in which Barrett has been the deciding vote against Trump's side.
Swift and vicious reviews poured in from right-wing, Trump-allied figures this week when Barrett and other justices rejected a Trump administration attempt to avoid paying U.S. Agency for International Development contractors as ordered to by a federal judge.
"DEI judge," influencer Jack Posobiec posted on X, suggesting that Barrett was a "diversity, equity and inclusion" hire, presumably because she is a woman.
Trump at the time promised to pick a woman to replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
"Amy Coney Barrett was a DEI appointee," another far-right influencer, Laura Loomer, wrote.
Her X post featured a photo of Barrett's family. Barrett and her husband have seven children, including two they adopted from Haiti, who are Black.
Even Barrett's brief interaction with Trump earlier this week, when he delivered an address to Congress, has been scrutinized by the online MAGA set.
"Look at how Justice Amy Coney Barrett looks at our duly elected President, the man who put her on the Supreme Court. She looks very bitter," Rogan O'Handley, an influential MAGA figure on X known by his handle DC_Draino, wrote in a post containing a video of the encounter.
One law professor, Josh Blackman at South Texas College of Law Houston, suggested that Barrett should step down from her lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court so that Trump can pick a replacement.
The White House did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Barrett defenders have fought back, with Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor who studied under Barrett, saying in an interview he doubted she would be affected by the negative reactions.
"She has the resolve to be on the court just like the other justices do," he said. The justices know that "unpopularity is not a measure of what a judge is doing," he added.
The conservative National Review also weighed in, posting a column Thursday titled “In Defense of Justice Amy Coney Barrett,” deriding the criticism as “nonsense.”
Barrett's USAID vote followed a decision in January when the court, once again split 5-4, rejected Trump's request to block a sentencing hearing in his criminal hush money case in New York. The decision prompted angry reactions from pro-Trump voices including Davis.
In both cases, Barrett joined fellow conservative Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority, aligned with the three liberal justices.
Even before those cases, Barrett has increasingly shown a willingness to separate herself from the right flank of the court with a considered and cautious approach.
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