MAGA has a new villain: Amy Coney Barrett - Ian Millhiser @ Vox

[In It to Win It]

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A new Economist/YouGov poll is a rich text for political observers of the Supreme Court. The Court is unpopular (only 36 percent of American adults approve). It is loathed by Democrats (80 percent of whom disapprove of the Court). And its approval among Republicans is surprisingly soft, given that the GOP controls six of the nine seats on the Court. Only 69 percent of Republicans approve.

The least popular justice, meanwhile, is Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Although President Donald Trump’s most recent appointment to the Court is a conservative Republican, she is barely above water within her own party — a result that is unsurprising, because Barrett has recently come under fire from several far-right lawmakers and media figures.



In the rush of major rulings that the justices handed down at the end of June, Barrett joined two 5-4 decisions that ruled against Trump and his Republican Party. And not just on any issues, but two that have become increasingly central to the MAGA-era right: elections and immigration.

For many Supreme Court experts, the biggest surprise in both cases is that the vote was so close. In Watson v. Republican National Committee (2026), Republicans challenged a Mississippi law that allowed ballots that are mailed before Election Day, but that arrive up to five days later, to be counted — despite the fact that states have counted late-arriving ballots since the Civil War. And, in Trump v. Barbara (2026), Barrett also rejected Trump’s argument that a constitutional provision, that makes most people born in the United States citizens, has been misread by the Supreme Court for nearly 130 years.

But these decisions sparked angry responses from many of Trump’s allies, who had built up the ballot case into a bulwark against nonexistent election fraud touted by the president and the birthright citizenship case into a last stand against often-conspiratorial fears of an immigration “invasion.”

MAGA has a new villain: Amy Coney Barrett www.vox.com/politics/494...

— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser.bsky.social) 2026-07-08T15:24:33.722Z

[Jilly_in_VA]

1. Maybe because she won't toe their line?

She actually votes her consciuence on occasion, instead of consistently and blindly tagging along behind Beer Boy, Clarence the toad, and Slimy Sammy.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

2. The Amy Coney Barrett who could not

name the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment, during her confirmation hearings?

[kentuck]

3. She is the Justice that is holding the Court together...

...in my opinion.

Without her, it would be really bad.