Elon Musk, conservatives drag Trump-appointed justice following Venezuelan deportations ruling

Conservatives are reeling after Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberal justices, dissenting in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision to allow President Donald Trump’s administration to deport Venezuelan nationals under the 1789 Alien Enemies Act. 

Republicans have celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling that allows the Trump administration under the wartime immigration law to deport Venezuelan nationals, whom the White House maintains are Tren de Aragua gang members and terrorists. Since the ruling, conservatives have flooded social media with discontent at Barrett for siding with Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent. 

“This is disappointing,” Trump ally Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on his personal X account, reacting to Barrett joining the three liberal justices in ruling against Trump’s deportations. 

Responding to Lee’s disappointment, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk piled on the Barrett critique in an X post: “Suicidal empathy is a civilizational risk.”

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“While this Supreme Court victory for Trump allowing him to deport cartels is huge, it was only a 5-4 decision. Guess who joined the 3 liberal Justices to keep cartels here in America? Amy Coney Barrett,” conservative influencer Rogan O’Handley, known as DC Draino on X, said in a post. 

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LindellTV White House reporter Cara Castronuova asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about Barrett’s “decision to go with the liberals, and to go actually with the Tren de Araguas” during Tuesday’s White House press briefing. Leavitt did not address Barrett’s vote directly but said the administration wished it was a unanimous decision. 

“We believe this was a massive victory,” Leavitt replied. “Certainly, we wish this was a 9-0 decision because we firmly believe the president was well within his constitutional authority and the Supreme Court made that very clear last night.”

Barrett is no stranger to the ire of Republicans, particularly Trump’s most loyal base, as this isn’t the first time she’s bucked her conservative justices since joining the majority on the nation’s highest court. She delivered a sharp dissent against a 6-3 ruling in 2024 that said the Justice Department went too far in charging Jan. 6 rioters at the U.S. Capitol with obstruction.

The Supreme Court on Monday granted Trump’s request to vacate a lower court’s ruling that barred the Trump administration from invoking the 1789 Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan nationals from the United States. The act allows the United States to remove “dangerous” immigrants during times of war. At least 261 migrants were deported last month, including more than 100 Venezuelans specifically under the 1789 law. 

The Supreme Court did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by deadline.