Justice Amy Coney Barrett is, and always has been, an originalist and a conservative. As such, she understands her proper role as a judge: to say what the law is, not what she wishes it to be. Unfortunately, some activists do not care about the rule of law Barrett and her fellow originalist justices uphold. Instead, they want politicized outcomes, whatever the cost. In recent years, activists have increasingly threatened harm to the justices and their families. On July 14, Barrett and Justice Elena Kagan testified before Congress requesting increased security funding in response to that threat. Barrett told members of Congress that, in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, she had to explain to her 12-year-old son what bulletproof vests are and why she needed to wear one.As recently as May, Barrett and her family were the victims of a swatting incident. One of Barrett’s teenage sons opened the front door to go out with friends but instead saw a street full of police responding “to a false report of gun shots and raised voices” in the justice’s home.
No government officials, whatever their views, should have to live with threats of violence against their families. Yet, in response to Barrett’s testimony, some have claimed that such threats are merely the cost of public service. As one commenter wrote, “Amy Coney Barrett finding out her kids have to live in the world she legislates is almost poetic.”That comment is as evil as it is telling. Barrett is the target of so much criticism because she refuses to “legislate.” Her commitment to originalism, to the Constitution, and to the rule of law prevents her from doing so.Because this commitment to originalism does not always lead her to rule in favor of their preferred political outcomes, some on the populist Right have called her “a turncoat” and a “DEI hire.” Like the progressives of the Left who are eager to pack the court so that it will advance their political goals at the expense of the rule of law, these populists would burn the ship to save the sail.
