By CHASE HOPE, POLITICAL REPORTER FOR THE DAILY MAIL Published: 15:26 EDT, 30 June 2026 | Updated: 17:58 EDT, 30 June 2026
Conservative figures are torching a Supreme Court justice after her vote helped defeat Donald Trump’s push to restrict birthright citizenship.Amy Coney Barrett, taking office in 2020, was the final of three justices appointed by the President during his first term.But she sided with Chief Justice John Roberts, also a Republican appointee, and the Court’s three liberals to overrule the dissent of justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s second appointee, concurred with the judgment but disagreed with the majority’s argument.The court cited the 14th Amendment to hold that ‘children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth.’The decision struck down a Trump executive order seeking to prevent the children of temporarily or illegally present people from attaining citizenship.Barrett has faced intense criticism for joining the liberals in the ruling.’It turns out that Amy Coney Barrett is a DEI hire, little better than Ketanji [Brown] Jackson,’ Daily Wire pundit Matt Walsh wrote on X on Tuesday morning. ‘Terrible pick.’ Memes caricaturing Amy Coney Barrett as a liberal, with blue hair and nose rings, circulated online after her vote helped defeat Donald Trump’s push to restrict birthright citizenship Trump speaks on the day he signs an executive order on vehicle repairs in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, June 29Join the discussionHas the Supreme Court betrayed Trump’s base, or shown true loyalty to the Constitution?Memes caricaturing Barrett as a liberal, complete with blue hair and nose rings, circulated online.Conservative outlet Blaze Media’s Auron MacIntyre said that appointing Coney Barrett ‘was just as damaging to the country as “electing” Joe Biden.’ Conservative writer Megan Basham added Roberts in her complaints, labeling the decision ‘an absolute monstrosity.”Amy Coney Barrett has got to be one of Trump’s biggest L’s,’ another X user wrote.Some even cast aspersions at Coney Barrett’s adoption of two Haitian children, suggesting everything from a conflict of interest on Coney Barrett’s part to deporting the children.Kavanaugh’s more middle-ground position may have helped to insulate him from the harsh criticism received by Barrett and Roberts.Kavanaugh disagreed that Trump’s executive order violated the 14th Amendment’s definition of citizenship, but he went along with the majority’s decision because he believed the order contradicted a law passed by Congress in 1940.Kavanaugh suggested that Congress could pass a law establishing the same citizenship restrictions sought by Trump. The backlash comes just a day after Trump supporters were outraged with Barrett for her vote in the Court’s 5-4 decision on late-receipt mail-in ballots. Talk show host Megyn Kelly called her a ‘turncoat’ on Monday.Barrett authored the majority opinion in the mail-in voting case.The justice was targeted last month in an alleged swatting incident, and her sister, Amanda Coney Williams, received a bomb threat last March.US Supreme CourtAmy Coney Barrett
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Trump’s own Supreme Court pick branded ‘DEI hire’ by furious MAGA base after birthright citizenship betrayal
