American jurist, appointed to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump in 2020. Barrett is more conservative than Anthony Kennedy, but since the court has shifted rightward she often finds herself in a similar position as the conservative justice most likely to side with the liberal wing. On occasion she appears more sceptical than her fellow Republican appointees of extravagant claims of executive power.
Barrett has a bulletproof vest and full-time security. She has received death threats and "lewd packages" sent to her home. One of the men who stormed the Capitol on January 6th 2021 said he hoped someone would cut her throat "from ear to ear". Unsolicited pizzas arrive at her relatives' homes—a common way for thugs to signal that they know where you live.
A judge is "not a Democrat or Republican", she insists, and not "beholden to a particular administration or party".
In December 2025 Barrett joined the majority in Trump v Illinois, a 6-3 ruling that the president could not deploy National Guard troops in Chicago to help federal officials manage immigration-related protests. She sided with the three Democratic appointees, Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts. The ruling held that Section 12406 of Title 10, which allows the president to federalise the Guard when he is "unable with the regular forces to execute the laws", refers only to active-duty military forces, not civilian agencies such as ICE.
In February 2026 Barrett voted with the majority in the 6-3 ruling in Learning Resources v Trump striking down Trump's IEEPA tariffs. She and Justice Neil Gorsuch joined Chief Justice Roberts and the three liberal justices to hold that IEEPA does not authorise the president to impose tariffs. During oral arguments she pressed the solicitor-general to name "any other time in history" when "regulate…importation" was understood to mean tariffs. Barrett and Gorsuch each wrote separate concurring opinions refining their permutations of the major-questions doctrine; their differences with the liberal justices turned on doctrine rather than politics.
In 2025 she published "Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution".
The problem with any unwritten law is that you don't know where to go to erase it.