Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett quickly shut down an offer to respond to President Donald Trump‘s flurry of public attacks against the high court, saying she ‘does not want’ to talk about anything the commander-in-chief has to say.
Her remarks came just days after Trump excoriated Justice Barrett and two of her conservative colleagues, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, for blocking his effort to crack down on mail-in voting in the fast-approaching midterm elections.
Just two justices – Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – sided with the Trump administration in the case, prompting the president to unleash fury on social media.
‘I don’t want to talk about anything that the President has said in particular,’ Barrett said Thursday evening, speaking at an event at the University of Virginia to discuss her book, Listening to the Law.
The dismissal is not surprising from Barrett, who, like her colleagues on the high court, goes to great lengths in public events to avoid weighing in, or appearing to weigh in, on politically charged issues – even when it comes to scathing broadsides from a sitting president.
‘These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,’ Trump said on social media this week, shortly after the high court blocked his restrictions on mail-in ballots from taking force.
‘This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years,’ Trump said, adding that ‘certain Justices are petrified of these crazed and depraved Democrats, and are totally unable to show the courage necessary to save our America.’
Trump has taken to social media on more than one occasion to excoriate the high court for ruling against him in his second term – including in February, after the justices invalidated his use of an emergency law to unilaterally enact sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners.
First Lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and her husband, Jesse Barrett, at the White House in 2020
Trump speaks to reporters about a recent Supreme Court ruling. He has harshly criticized the high court for blocking some of his recent executive orders, including mail-in voting
Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts pause for photographs at the top of the steps on the west side of the Supreme Court
Barrett and Gorsuch joined their colleagues in the 6-3 ruling.
Trump took umbrage at the high court in a series of social media posts following their ruling on the tariff case in February, accusing justices of ‘ransacking’ the country and blasting the court itself as ‘incompetent.’
Barrett did briefly acknowledge the unique pressures that she and her colleagues on the Supreme Court face – though she attributed this to broader and more systemic issues such as political polarization, rather than one individual or group of individuals.
‘I really think that the court can’t do its business with an eye towards the public opinion polls,’ Barrett said during the event, stressing the importance of judicial independence.
‘At the end of the day, the job is to apply the law. … When you’re saying that something the majority wanted to do is unconstitutional, that’s going to be unpopular,’ Barrett said Thursday night, speaking to a sold-out audience.
‘And frankly, it is the polarization in our country right now that means everybody will be unhappy with one side or another.’
Like other Supreme Court justices, Barrett used the public event to highlight the many ways she and her colleagues work to maintain positive relationships and disagree ‘well.’
Still, Barrett’s remarks come just months after she and Justice Elena Kagan testified before Congress about a proposed budget increase for the Supreme Court – the bulk of which would be funneled to bolstering security for the Supreme Court building and for justices.
Kagan and Barrett told lawmakers in back-to-back hearings in July that threats to the Supreme Court are on track to rise by 38 percent in 2026, compared to the previous 12-month period.
Barrett was a victim of a swatting attempt earlier this year, which she spoke about briefly during her testimony at the time.
‘As Justice Kagan said, federal judges across the country, throughout the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, continue to do their jobs without fear or favor, but the threat level is really high,’ Barrett said.
