Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined a 6-3 decision upholding birthright citizenship, siding with Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s liberals. The ruling immediately triggered sharp backlash from prominent conservative figures who framed Barr
Amy Coney Barrett didn’t hesitate in the vote that set off a political firestorm.
On Tuesday. the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship in a 6-3 decision. and Barrett—described by her critics as the court’s most consistent originalist—joined Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion. Roberts’ reasoning rested on the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment and more than a century of Supreme Court precedent.
Barrett was the only justice on the court labeled an originalist in the way the story is framed here. and her alignment with the court’s liberals and fellow conservatives Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts only intensified the anger from the political right. For Trump-aligned media and allies, the problem wasn’t just the outcome. It was the match between what they expected from Barrett and what she actually did.
Matt Walsh, a conservative commentator, put that frustration into blunt language. In a post on X, he called Barrett a “DEI hire” and a “secret liberal,” adding: “Terrible pick,” and asking, “When’s the last time a Republican president didn’t put a liberal justice on the court?”
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts described the ruling with an even sharper charge. He called it a “betrayal of the republic” and accused the court of OK-ing an “all-out assault on our sovereignty.”
Stephen Miller, described in the material as a Donald Trump adviser and white supremacist, framed the decision as existential. He said the court was pushing the United States toward “national self-obliteration.”
President Donald Trump himself added his voice to the pressure campaign. He said the decision was “too bad for our country,” and he called on Congress to narrow the scope of birthright citizenship.
The backlash didn’t start with Tuesday’s ruling, either. Even before the Supreme Court acted on birthright citizenship. the material says podcaster Megyn Kelly had already been attacking Barrett for what Kelly characterized as a pattern of siding with the court’s liberals. After the court approved a Mississippi law allowing late mail-in ballots to be counted, Kelly called Barrett a “turncoat.”.
Kelly’s comments were direct. She said, “Kagan, Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson— I have to admire their commitment to their side. They never abandon their side,” and then added: “[Barrett is] constantly siding with the left.”
Barrett’s vote on Tuesday. then. landed like a stinging follow-up to an argument already underway on the right: that Barrett would eventually break from what her critics describe as conservative expectations. The Supreme Court’s decision. written around the Fourteenth Amendment and long-standing precedent. gave the ruling a steady legal logic—while her political opponents found a different kind of instability in her alignment.
The court’s 6-3 outcome leaves the immediate dispute at the level of messaging and mobilization for now. but the demand for action is clear in the record provided: Trump has called on Congress to narrow birthright citizenship after the ruling. and prominent conservatives have escalated their attacks on Barrett from disappointment into accusations of betrayal.
Supreme Court Amy Coney Barrett birthright citizenship Fourteenth Amendment Donald Trump Congress John Roberts Brett Kavanaugh political backlash Matt Walsh Kevin Roberts Stephen Miller Megyn Kelly Mississippi late mail-in ballots