Donald Trump’s supporters are taking to social media to call out Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett for going against the president-elect, who placed her on the bench, in the ruling around his sentencing decision.
Trump received an unconditional discharge in his New York hush money case, meaning the conviction will stand without additional penalties such as jail time.
The President-elect was convicted in May of falsifying records tied to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election, with the intention to prevent Daniels from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter in 2006.
Trump is the first U.S. president to face criminal sentencing as he is preparing to take office in just 10 days.
The Supreme Court allowed for Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan’s decision on Friday after rejecting Trump’s request to halt the proceeding in a 5-4 decision on Thursday.
Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Coney Barrett, broke with conservatives to side with the court’s three liberal justices.
Many Make America Great Again (MAGA) supporters are calling out Coney Barrett specifically for her switch.
“In my opinion, Amy Coney Barrett has been the biggest disappointment from President Trump’s first term in office. I was completely fooled by this closet liberal!” posted Vince Langman, who identifies himself as “MAGA2024” and an “ex-con deplorable.”
Another Trump supporter and X user, Ikta Sensrosi, posted that Coney Barrett is “one of the worst people to ever serve on SCOTUS.”
User @JamesMo97816813, who calls themselves “UltraMAGA,” called out both Coney Barrett and Roberts.
“Chief Justice Roberts and Amy Comey Barrett joined with their leftist colleagues Judge Merchan and Alvin Bragg to allow this unprecedented abuse,” the user posted. “The ruling makes no sense … Barrett received threats early on and she has let it control her decisions. TRAITORS.”
Others posted Coney Barrett’s name with gifs of The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian television series based on a novel by Margaret Atwood about a totalitarian government that has complete control over women’s bodies.
Despite what his supporters are saying on social media, Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social that he appreciates “the time and effort of the United States Supreme Court in trying to remedy the great injustice done to me by the highly conflicted ‘Acting Justice,’ who should not have been allowed to try this case.”
This is not the first time Coney Barrett has shown signs of being willing to reach across the aisle. In June, she wrote the dissenting opinion after the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the federal obstruction statute that has been used against several defendants charged in connection to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
She also split from conservatives later that month after the High Court blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing air-quality regulations.
Going into Trump’s second term in office, CNN chief Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic said the liberal justices may need to look to Coney Barrett for support.
“There’s always been this search for this center, and that’s what you see going on now,” Biskupic said on CNN News Central. “The three liberals left there … are desperately looking for anyone at the center and, so far, Amy Coney Barrett has offered them the best chance.”
Justice Coney Barrett was nominated by then-President Trump to join the Supreme Court in 2020 to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The nomination, however, was deemed controversial since it was only 38 days before the 2020 presidential election.
Senate voted 52-48 to confirm her, with all Democrats and one Republican opposing the vote.
Amy Coney Barrett speaks during a confirmation hearing in October 2020 on Capitol Hill. Coney Barrett did not follow conservative lines for a decision around Trump’s hush money court case.
Coney Barrett is the fifth woman to serve on the court.
Prior to the appointment, Coney Barrett served from 2017 to 2020 as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which covers Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Coney Barrett was nominated to that position by Trump as well, after the previous judge took senior status.
As part of Coney Barrett’s hearing to become a circuit judge, Senator Dianne Feinstein questioned her about a law review article she co-wrote in 1998. Coney Barrett and Professor John Garvey had argued that Catholic judges should recuse themselves from death penalty cases.
In the hearing, Coney Barrett explained that her “personal church affiliation or my religious belief would not bear on the discharge of my duties as a judge.” This, however, made Coney Barrett popular with religious conservatives, especially on issues like abortion rights and LGBTQ equality.
During her time in the 7th Circuit, Coney Barrett also taught at the University of Notre Dame Law School. She held classes on civil procedure, constitutional law and statutory interpretation.
Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, on X: “Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined with their leftist colleagues to allow this unprecedented abuse. The ruling makes no sense…”
President-elect Donald Trump on Truth Social: “The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt. After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE.”
Trump will be inaugurated as the nation’s 47th president on Monday, January 20, taking office as the first president to face criminal sentencing.
