Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has been having a rough go at it since becoming the sole woman justice to side with her conservative male colleagues in the decision to upend nearly 50 years of precedent and overturn Roe v. Wade.
Related: Roberta Kaplan on the demise of Roe v. Wade and what’s next for equality
Last month, after the Dobbs draft leaked but prior to the final ruling being announced, The Guardian published a bombshell report about People of Praise, an anti-LGBTQ Christian cult where she once served as a handmaid female leader. The report included accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior against the group’s leader Kevin Ranaghan and his wife, Dorothy, who Barrett lived with for two years in the mid ’90s.
Related: Creepy new details about Amy Coney Barrett’s cult emerge and wow, what a holy nightmare
Then last week, a large group of peaceful protestors gathered outside her suburban home in Virginia, waving signs that read “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries,” “Our rights are not up for debate,” “No forced birth,” and “Liar” with a photo of Barrett printed underneath.
And now this week, she’s the subject of a damning op-ed by Slate political writer Mark Joseph Stern titled “Amy Coney Barrett Is in Over Her Head” that details all the ways in which the 50-year-old mother of seven, who was nominated by Donald Trump to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020, remains “ill-prepared” for her job on the Supreme Court.
Writes Stern:
Part of the problem is that, of all the current justices, Barrett had the least amount of preparation and training for the unique requirements of the job. She spent most of her career as a professor at Notre Dame Law School, where her students chose her as distinguished professor of the year three times. Her academic work was often dry and technical, verging on esoteric, and she avoided committing herself to any controversial ideas. Donald Trump appointed her to a federal appeals court in 2017, where she served for less than three years before joining the Supreme Court. Her opinions seemed calculated to improve her chances for a SCOTUS seat. No other member of today’s court had so little experience in public service before their elevation.
In addition to being wholly inexperienced, Stern adds that Barrett hasn’t done enough or, frankly, anything to try to restore faith in the court after her eleventh hour confirmation in October 2020 following that disastrous White House COVID-19 superspreader event one month prior:
Barrett has done little to dispel the fumes of partisanship and illegitimacy that poisoned her appointment. Her attempts at public relations have backfired. She inked a lucrative book deal for her memoirs before she had produced a scintilla of a public thought. In September, the justice declared that she and her colleagues were not “a bunch of partisan hacks” while standing next to McConnell at a center named after him. (She limited press access to the event.) In April, she urged Americans to “read the opinions” before concluding that the court’s work was “purely results-driven.”
Stern also calls Barrett’s performance during oral arguments “befuddling”, filled with awkward questions and transparent judicial theater. The when the decisions come down, she retreats into the shadows like a ghost, offering neither concurrences and dissents explaining her votes:
The justice wrote nothing in Dobbs to tell us why she overruled Roe. She wrote nothing in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, a brutal 5–4 assault on tribal sovereignty. Nothing in West Virginia v. EPA hobbling climate regulations; or Kennedy v. Bremerton allowing Christian prayer in public schools; or Carson v. Makin forcing public funding of religious education; or Vega v. Tekoh undermining Miranda warnings; or the brutal habeas decisions that let states execute innocent people.
Things also aren’t looking so hot for Barrett on Twitter right now. Here’s what folx are saying over there…
Hey, while you’re here, check out Kate McKinnon‘s impersonation of Barrett on SNL from earlier this year...
Related: Oh great: Amy Coney Barrett gets her first opportunity to impact queer rights this week
dgsea06
Sure, but it’s not so much her but the right-wing fascist Rethuglicons who put her there.
All the cliches apply: Wake up America! You’re losing America! Do Something!
Vote like your life depends on it-Because it does.
CityguyUSA
When has voting ever solved a problem besides just replacing one piece of crap with what we thought was a lesser piece of crap?
Ronbo
Are the Democratic leaders allowing this crap to continue, inorder to increase political donations?
The President could allow abortion services on federal land in every state in the nations.
The President could enlarge the court to better represent the people it covers – not just Catholics.
The President could WORK to pass legislation protecting women’s rights.
There are over 20 other actions that the Democrats could do to protect our rights.
Why the empty silence and zero action… are our elderly leaders MIA in the hopes that these WRONG Supreme Court decisions will help them politically?
Our Democratic leadership should not be gambling with our rights – they should be taking action NOW. Next year will be too late.
SilenceDogood
it’s almost like the party of tolerance hates women who don’t conform. The constitution is more important than your bodies or your feelings.
abfab
My god are you ever an idiot.
DK
1. Plot twist: Dems have never argued anyone should tolerate lying, phony, selfish radical right fascist hypocrites determined to enslave and kill women with forced birth and strip Americans of freedom and privacy. No decent patriot should tolerate any of you.
2. You Rethuglikkklans think 10 year old rape victims should be forced to birth their attackers’ offspring. That’s love for women? Get real, homie. Nobody outside of your r8ght wing Great Replacement Theory white supremacist cult takes seriously phony GQP lectures about hate.
3. Alito, Barrett, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and the GQP don’t give a rat’s behind about the Constitution. They lied under oath about precedent. They lie about the words and intent of the 2nd Amendment to invent a heretofore nonexistent right for any crazy to own any firearm unregulated and unrestricted, so they can help the NRA slaughter schookids. They are lying about the 9th, 13th, and 14th Amendments — and the long history of common law abortion — to enslave women with forced birth and impose their extremist religious views on an unwilling public.
You are why Trump lost, and why the GQP is shrinking down to dying Boomers and mass shooter incels. Republicans are liars and traitors, unfit for office.
Bosch
“The constitution is more important than your bodies”
Do you have any idea how creepy that sounds? What is the constitution supposed to protect, if not citizens?
You people are the dark side.
Kinkslola
you can’t fix stupid so why bother
dbmcvey
Well, SilenceDogood, yours was the dumbest comment of the day! Congrats!
cs1900
Oh sweet little baby angel.
First of all, you capitalize “Constitution” if you really mean it.
Second of all, I’m tired of this false equivalence, “women who don’t conform.” No, dummy, only on the right wing do you believe that’s a win. Believe it or not, you smug asshole, it’s more than possible for women to be antifeminist. For instance, Amy Coney Barrett.
Jim
Remember when we respected SCOTUS?
CityguyUSA
Before the senate blocked Obama’s appointment and he did nothing? I gotta tell you Merrick Garland isn’t blowing me away with much of anything and that’s the best we could do?
Ronbo
Garland seems timid and not up to the job of dealing with the bullies in congress and the law profession. Or maybe, WE need bullies in congress to defend us. These whimpy politicians seem overjoyed with the SC and corruption – in the hope that we’ll elect more of the same people who couldn’t fix problems after we TWICE elected a D President, D House and D Congress (Obama and Biden).
Have we hitched our future to the old guard who have fallen and can’t get up? It’s not that old people can’t function – THESE old people are millionaires and action for change is a risk they no longer support.
chat fisher
In this particular case the SOW is reaping what she sowed.
stonercharles
Poor Little Amy Golden Dome…. Screw her and the rest of the NDU Papists…
lou lou de la falaise
like she cares.
LumpyPillows
All we had to do was elect Hillary, but no…
Robert Bradley
Technically, we the people, did elect Hillary. Never mistake that. The archaic electoral collage simply said tRump won.
Through abortion and guns…. I make eliminating the Electoral College process my number one goal. Both previous issues would be NON ISSUES if popular vote alone determined our governmental destiny.
CityguyUSA
Hillary wouldn’t have been doing anything more than her husband which was deregulate Wall Street and screw Main St. by selling off their jobs to low wage countries. That was Bill’s big accomplishment selling the US on a service economy. She would have been a huge disaster for very different reasons than Trump.
We’ve had 3 crashes just in the past 21+ years. Before that we had the Saving and Loan mess under Reagan and 1929 in 100 years. And we paid for those first two we didn’t just print money to hide what is now a $100 trillion dollar debt created by Wall St. This whole time businesses were buying back stock not paying down debt which is the highest ever making Wall St appear profitable but it’s hugely overpriced and it will come down as more and more businesses fail to meet their projections.
Lastly we increased the government debt to $29 trillion and interest rates are going up. The same mess we had under Reagan where our creditors were growing concerned about our ability to pay the interest let alone the debt. And we had taxpayors actually making livible wages then. We are no longer the king of the economy our days are numbered because of Bill’s sale of businesses to Asia.
Kangol2
Demonstrably underqualified, a member of a secretive extreme religious cult, with no capacity to explain the decisions she’s voting for = Amy Coney Barrett.
This is who Don the Con and the RepuQ party foisted on the United States of America.
But then again, she basically said at a speech at Notre Dame that she saw the law as a means to enact the Kingdom of God on earth, so clearly the Constitution, our laws and everything else are instrumental to the theocracy she and others are trying to enact. Beware, push back or you’ll be living in their dystopia before you know it (and we already increasingly are)!
bachy
Well, there’s one good thing that will come of the abortion ruling. There will now be more unwanted children who grow up in poverty and end up living a life of crime.
They can serve as targets for all the guns the Republican population will be carrying.
Kinkslola
“Hear, hear”
Mister P
Trump was so anxious to appease his base, that is a minority of Americans, that he appointed this bitch and Cavanaugh. We deserve better and shame on anyone who believes those two idiots are the best we should have.
Kangol2
Don’t forget Gorsuch. Don the Con’s first SCOTUS nominee was Gorsuch, who filled the seat left open when RepuQs refused to seat President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland!
dbmcvey
@Kangol2
And the irony is, I’m not sure Garland would have been that great.
abfab
I wish someone would knock gym jordon up….with triplets.
James
I HATE HER. SHE IS AN EVIL LYING HOMOPHOBIC WITCH FROM HELL.
M.Gallo
Onto important news:
On Monday, Joe Biden spoke about a 10-year-old girl who was raped and went to Indiana from Ohio for an abortion. Biden failed to mention that this 10-year-old girl was raped repeatedly by an illegal alien who impregnated her and who has a criminal history in Guatemala as a rapist.
This same miscreant rapist was permitted into America without any vetting by the Biden Administration and the Democrats.
Therefore, this tragedy was put in motion by Biden and the Democrats who believe in open borders and flooding American towns with illegal aliens.
Most conservatives support abortion in the cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger. These three cases account for only 3% of all abortions according to Planned Parenthood’s Guttmacher Institute.
Republican candidates: Put this rapist’s picture next to a picture of your Democrat opponents in all of your TV ads and show the voters what a hellhole Biden and the Democrats are making of America.
CNY1983
DO YOU HEAR THAT “REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES”??? the great and powerful Oz has spoken!
does anyone else think about that “MY NAME IS TALKING TINA” doll every time you see her face?
if she only knew her husband was on grinder looking for fem twinks while he wears her dirty leggs pantyhose with the smelly crotch like a yeast culture dish. someone (C.THOMAS) needs to put a pubic hair in her coke can.
dbmcvey
Ah, so you’re just cut and pasting this on every topic. You realize that frequent posts still don’t make it true or you less stupid.
DK
This same miscreant rapist was permitted into America without any vetting by the Biden Administration and the Democrats.”
Annother day, another Rethuglikkklan lie. The rapist whose offspring Republicans wanted to force a 10 year-old to birth entered the country illegally years before Biden took office and was allowed to stay by Trump and Ohio Republicans. Everything conservatives are saying about this case is a lie designed to distract from toxic conservative forced birth extremism.
“Most conservatives support abortion in the cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger.” Zero Democrats support goverment bureaucrats stripping Americans of freedom and privacy, forcing women to have a rapist’s baby, and enslaving women with forced birth. . Zero. Every one of the 10 states outlawing abortion with no exceptions is conservative and Republican.
“These three cases account for only 3% of all abortions.” One woman or girl forced to have a rapist’s baby is one too many. Let alone the thousands in that 3%.
Keep digging, spinning, and lying GQP. Your abortion politics are toxic and unpopular, and no amount of spin will save you from the wrath of angry American women and their allies.
M.Gallo
CNY1983, dbmcvey & DK:
ALL of the polls – not one or two, but all – point to Republicans winning back the House of Representatives. I don’t know of any poll or independent analyst who predicts that the Democrats will keep control of the House. Republican governors will also do well and Republicans will continue to control a majority of state legislatures. You think that Americans support the LGBTQ+ grooming of kindergarten and elementary school children, drag queen story times, and abortion in the last month of pregnancy? Plus, American voters despise what Biden and the Democrats have done to create a borderless nation, floods of illegal aliens, escalating crime, and the worst inflation and gas prices in 40 years. You three really are cut off from reality; you live in a tiny gay leftist echo chamber. You’ll see in November, and I’ll come back here to rub your noses in it.
CityguyUSA
I didn’t hear anything about an illegal immigrant it was supoosedly her father.
MystiRivers
I’m sure that a Supreme Court justice doesn’t read or care about what people say about her on social media.
Ronbo
This cabal of Catholics on the SC need to be balanced with people who represent the world today. They can’t move us back to the dark ages for long; reversing time has never been achieved.
This theft of the SC must be dealt with now. – sooner than later. Otherwise, the public might crusade. Where did I put those thumb screws and diagrams on being drawn and quartered?
Better yet, I will no longer vote for any candidate who has NOT taken action to address the theft that occured in front of our own eyes! I’m talking both Republicans and the Democrats who allowed the theft. Obama could have nominated and sworn in his SC candidate – and let a non-Catholic SC decide the case. the Justice Dept could have highlighted the Republican justification for not giving the President’s choice a hearing – and denied Republicans the opportunity to hypocritically seat their patsy.
Democratic politicians need to do more than complain – a little progressive action goes a long way to exciting the voters. Or maybe we need a political party that won’t tolerate such corruption and be gleeful with such an opportunity to raise cash. Fix the problems, don’t capitalize on them for personal gain.
I’d like Queerty to highlight the Democrats (DINOs) who voted for any one of the hardcore right-wing SC candidates. And yes, I do know that a Senator Biden protected Clarence Thomace from that mean Anita Hill – and voted for Thomas. Democratic politicians don’t seem to learn from their mistakes. I’d like Queerty to post what these DINOs say now that they are shown to be useful idiots.
Startrax99
Republicans don’t think any farther than they can fall. Now that abortion is illegal in their states, and they don’t want woman traveling, I hope DNA tests spike, and the age of N.D.A.’s are over.
They are about to get what they asked for. And, f em.
Traitors deserve a bullet .
Liars deserve their jobs revoked.
This country needs to wake up.
STOP being sheep.
Fight how you can.
Vote these bitches OUT.
AND, hold people accountable, before we don’t care about fighting. And leave this cesspool.
Term limits and background checks.
Startrax99
And, in my opinion:
1) Honest people don’t plead the fifth
2) Innocent people don’t leave the scene.
America is DONE, if things aren’t held accountable.
I am starting (for like 45 years) that I watch this place implode, seriously wonder if it’s time to go.
I’m tired of fighting for my place.
johncp56
Once again religious lies, she lied and pushed a religious scam, why do we put up with this crap!!!
johncp56
Lies under oath!!!