Who is Amy Coney Barrett? Trump appointed judge who sided with liberals on deportation ruling

The US Supreme Court on Monday quashed a lower court order that had blocked the deportation of undocumented Venezuelan migrants by the Trump administration under a wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

In the 5-4 ruling, chief justice John Roberts and four other conservative justices voted to lift the district court’s temporary block, while the three liberal justices and justice Amy Coney Barrett , who was appointed by Trump, dissented.

President Trump used the Alien Enemies Act to authorise deportations through a proclamation aimed at the Tren de Aragua gang. In response, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan nationals held in Texas, leading district judge Boasberg to temporarily block the deportations.


Who is Amy Coney Barrett?

• Amy Coney Barrett was a law professor at Notre Dame University for nearly two decades before joining the judiciary. She earned her undergraduate degree from Rhodes College and later graduated from Notre Dame Law School.
• The 48-year-old superme court judge served as an appellate court judge before being nominated to the highest court by president Trump in 2020.
• Barrett is one of the four women currently serving as associate justices on the US supreme court.
• She has occasionally broken ranks with the court’s conservative bloc on key issues, drawing criticism from some right-wing circles.
• She voted against Trump’s request to block sentencing in his New York hush money case, reinstated a lower court’s order requiring the Trump administration to release nearly $2 billion in frozen foreign aid, and was also involved in last year’s supreme court ruling that limited the use of an obstruction charge against January 6 Capitol rioters.
• Trump publicly defended Barrett after a ruling in which she sided against him, allowing nearly $2 billion in frozen foreign aid to be distributed under existing contracts. Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump played down the criticism, saying, “She’s a very good woman. She’s very smart. I don’t know about people attacking her. I really don’t know.”