Sheldon Whitehouse Targets Justice Barrett over Free-Speech Case

The Senate’s leading conspiracy theorist, Sheldon Whitehouse, is at it again in his desperate campaign to delegitimize and intimidate the independent judiciary out of protecting constitutional liberties. This time, he’s after Justice Amy Coney Barrett over a free-speech case that will be argued Monday before the Supreme Court. Whitehouse has written a letter demanding that Justice Barrett recuse herself from the case because one of the parties is related to another organization that supported Barrett’s confirmation. Whitehouse’s argument is weak, inconsistent, and unsupported by precedent, and it ignores the context of the case itself.

The case is Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Rodriquez. It involves important First Amendment questions about the confidentiality of donors to nonprofit organizations. The defendant is the California attorney general’s office. A broad coalition of groups has urged the Court to find that a policy pursued by Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra while running that office violated the free-speech rights not only of conservative groups but of organizations across the political spectrum.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

Featured Tags

The Senate’s leading conspiracy theorist, Sheldon Whitehouse, is at it again in his desperate campaign to delegitimize and intimidate the independent judiciary out of protecting constitutional liberties. This time, he’s after Justice Amy Coney Barrett over a free-speech case that will be argued Monday before the Supreme Court. Whitehouse has written a letter demanding that Justice Barrett recuse herself from the case because one of the parties is related to another organization that supported Barrett’s confirmation. Whitehouse’s argument is weak, inconsistent, and unsupported by precedent, and it ignores the context of the case itself.

The case is Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Rodriquez. It involves important First Amendment questions about the confidentiality of donors to nonprofit organizations. The defendant is the California attorney general’s office. A broad coalition of groups has urged the Court to find that a policy pursued by Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra while running that office violated the free-speech rights not only of conservative groups but of organizations across the political spectrum.