Amy Coney Barrett 'Flipping,' Conservative Lawyer Warns

A conservative lawyer has warned that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is "flipping" to the left.

Barrett cemented the court's 6-3 conservative supermajority when the Trump nominee was appointed four years ago. Since then, she has joined with her conservative colleagues to overturn Roe v. Wade, strike down affirmative action and expand gun rights.

But Barrett's opinions in the court's most recent term, which ended last week, showed a willingness to separate herself from the conservative majority.

Barrett dissented when the court limited a federal obstruction law used to charge hundreds of Capitol riot defendants as well as former President Donald Trump.

Barrett also disagreed with part of the court's historic ruling that said former presidents have immunity from prosecution for official acts.

She has also clashed with Justice Clarence Thomas over how history should be used to decide modern legal issues.

"As I pointed out a while ago, Amy Coney Barrett is flipping," Mark Levin, a lawyer and political commentator, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday, alongside an Axios report with the headline "Amy Coney Barrett makes her mark."

"The media now owns Amy Coney Barrett. She's the latest in a long line of formerly conservative justice nominees who is smitten with media adulation. It'll get worse."

Levin criticized Barrett last month after the court sided with the Biden administration in a case over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts, ruling that a group of Republican-led states did not have the legal right, or standing, to sue.

"I'm telling you that Barrett has decided she's a politician, not a Justice," he said on his podcast.

He also predicted that she "will have flipped all the way to the left" by the end of her time on the court.

Barrett was the Republican appointee who most often voted for a liberal result in the court's latest term, The New York Times reported.

While Barrett may have departed from the court's conservative majority at times, she more often joined it.

She joined with the majority almost 92 percent of the time, according to data compiled by the Empirical SCOTUS blog. She was in the majority third most often, after Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

"If anyone thinks she will 'evolve' over to the left side of the court, they are mistaken," Irv Gornstein, executive director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown Law, recently told The Washington Post.

"She is a conservative jurist through and through."