Why Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s words on disagreement ring hollow

I choose to believe that most Americans agree with the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board (in their recent piece about Justice Amy Coney Barrett), that “disagreement need not  destroy relationships.” I even feel that the oft-quoted line from Rodney King, “Can we all get along?”, though a bit naive does speak to a moral principle that I also believe most people find to be righteous. But, Justice Barrett’s comments about maintaining “camaraderie and professionalism” when dealing with disagreement seem hypocritical when considering her own behavior on the Court.

Barrett’s treatment of other justices, just because they happened to disagree with her in some of the most significant cases in recent history, has been described by legal scholars and many in the media as “unusually biting” and “uniquely hostile.” This occurred recently in Trump v. CASA (a.k.a “Birthright Citizenship case) in which Justice Barrett, who authored the majority opinion, personally attacked Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson about her dissent. This also was evident in Trump v. Anderson (claiming section III of the 14th Amendment disqualified Trump from the Presidential ballot), when Justice Barrett chastised the other 3 female justices for choosing “to amplify disagreement with stridency”, even as the judgment (in favor of Trump) was unanimous.

This is not the only time comments from Justice Barrett have proven to be hypocritical. She also urged “all engaged and interested Americans to read the opinions”, in her appearance at the Reagan Library in 2022. Of course, this is increasingly difficult to do when so many consequential decisions are being made on the Court’s emergency (shadow) docket, usually unsigned and unexplained, or with the barest of reasoning offered.

The editorial board admonished that “we don’t have to be morally outraged every single day.” For those of us who care deeply about our rights, our communities, and our democracy, that is an impossible ask when each day we witness our representatives in government unable to set aside their deep-seated political ideologies in order to instead compromise and work together in uniting and advancing our nation.

When I watch the 1992 video of Rodney King making his plea that “we all get along” during the middle of the L.A. riots, there is something unmistakable in his appeal to the public that is not seen with many of those in positions of power today: true authenticity.