MAGA world has erupted in fury at Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett after the Trump appointee helped thwart the president’s bid to change election rules.
Barrett joined Chief Justice John Roberts and the Supreme Court’s three liberal justices in a 5-4 ruling allowing states to count mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive afterward.
The decision is a major blow to Trump and the Republican National Committee, and upholds the law in more than a dozen states.
“The electorate’s choice is made when voting is complete, not when ballots are received,” Barrett wrote.
“Election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose.”
The ruling sparked immediate outrage from prominent conservatives and MAGA supporters, some of whom dubbed her “Traitor Coney Barrett.”
“Barrett. AGAIN. WTF,” said podcaster Megyn Kelly.
“When you put fake constitutionalists on the Supreme Court - you get what you get,” wrote radio host Todd Starnes on X.
“President Trump and his base moved heaven and earth (to) confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court,” added conservative news outlet Town Hall.
Florida congressional candidate Mark Kaye was less diplomatic, writing: “Amy Coney Barrett is the legal equivalent of Shingles.”
The ruling marks the latest flashpoint between Barrett—who was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2020—and segments of Trump’s political base, which has grown increasingly frustrated with her.
Earlier this year, for instance, Barrett, Roberts and fellow Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch joined the liberal justices to strike down Trump’s signature tariff policy - a move that continues to outrage the president to this day.
Last year, she also voted to reject Trump’s attempt to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid, prompting legal commentator Mike Davis to declare on Steve Bannon’s podcast, “She’s a rattled law professor with her head up her a--.”
But speaking in DC to promote her book last year, the conservative justice clapped back at the criticism.
“To do this job, you have to be willing to be unpopular,” the 53-year-old said.
“There’s a little bit of an element of loneliness because you never know who is going to criticize you and who is not,” she added. “But the job is to tune it out and do the right thing anyway.”
The case challenged Mississippi’s law allowing absentee ballots postmarked on or before Election Day to be counted if they arrive within five business days.
Republican officials argued that federal law establishing a uniform Election Day requires ballots to be received—not merely cast—by Election Day.
The majority rejected that interpretation, preserving Mississippi’s law and similar ballot receipt deadlines used in numerous other states ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The lawsuit was backed by the Republican National Committee and aligned with Trump’s long-running criticism of mail voting.
Trump has repeatedly claimed mail ballots are rigged even though he has voted by mail himself, and despite courts, and election officials finding no evidence of widespread fraud on a scale capable of changing the outcome of a national election.
Election officials had warned that striking down postmark grace periods would have disrupted established election procedures and disproportionately affected military and overseas voters, whose ballots often cannot physically arrive by Election Day despite being mailed on time.
Barrett was joined by Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The dissent was written by Justice Samuel Alito and joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
“If ballots received after election day are added to the set of ballots that dictate the election’s outcome, the electorate’s choice does not occur on election day,” Alito wrote.
“The acceptance of these late-arriving ballots effectively postpones the date on which the electorate’s choice is made.”
