Alito Wants to Move Quickly, but Barrett Slowing Him Down

NYT analysis looks at the rising influence of Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court
Posted Jun 16, 2025 7:52 AM CDT
Barrett's Influence Quietly Rising on Supreme Court
From left, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy listen at President Trump's joint session of Congress at the Capitol Tuesday, March 4, 2025.   (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)

To be clear, Amy Coney Barrett is a conservative Supreme Court justice, and she "has moved the court's outcomes dramatically to the right and locked in conservative victories on gun rights, affirmative action and the power of federal agencies," writes Jodi Kantor in the New York Times. And yet, many on the right have been grumbling privately and publicly about what they see as Barrett's unreliability. Kantor's in-depth piece helps explain why: Of all Republican-appointed justices, Barrett has become the one most likely to join the majority in a liberal decision. In her first term, she aligned with Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in non-unanimous decisions 39% of the time. This term: 82%. Meanwhile, her influence on the court is rising, as measured by how frequently she winds up on the winning side. In short, she is managing to vex both the right and the left.

The piece illustrates how this divide is illustrated in her differences with fellow conservative Samuel Alito.

  • "Alito, 75, is in a hurry to take advantage of the conservative dominance on the court, barely disguising his annoyance at times when the other conservatives don't go along with him," writes Kantor. The 53-year-old Barrett, "who is likely to have a much longer future at the court, measures every move" and proceeds more cautiously.
(Read the full story.)

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