No, Justice Amy Coney Barrett Most Definitely Should Not Resign from the U.S. Supreme Court

What the hell is wrong with us?  

(I learned recently — writing about cruelty toward Erika Kirk — that people pay more attention when I use h-e-double-hockey-sticks. I won’t be abusing it, but this seems to rise to the occasion.) 

People want to kill Supreme Court justices.

It’s mainly a Dobbs/Roe v. Wade thing — which is worth exploring in and of itself. Violence begets violence, perhaps?

But we can put that aside for a moment: We don’t have to agree on abortion to agree that it’s wrong — as in evil — to threaten the lives of judges because you don’t like their jurisprudence. Or which president they were appointed by. Or if they have children under the age of 18. Or, well, for any reason, as it happens.  

Of course, you likely know I’m writing this because Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan were on the hill yesterday talking about security and the judicial branch. Barrett talked about having to explain to her twelve-year-old son why she walked into her family’s house with a bulletproof vest:

NEW: Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett details the chilling threats her family has faced, revealing the terrifying moment her 12-year-old son discovered a bulletproof vest in her bedroom during the fallout of the Dobbs leak.

Barrett also recounted a recent "swatting"… pic.twitter.com/Cn6yG0VTYO

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 14, 2026

She explained that sometimes packages are delivered to their home in the name of Daniel Anderl — he was a Catholic University of America student who was killed when a lawyer, posing as a delivery man, shot and killed Anderl and injured his father when Daniel opened the front door of their house. The lawyer had a case pending before his mother, a federal judge.  

The Daniel Anderl move is a dark fact I was unaware of. But it makes sense if you’re even vaguely familiar with the ways of powers and principalities; apparently the kid was a saint — there’s a canonization cause being considered. Evil hated him and would want to involve his name in its handiwork. 

And so some of the responses to Barrett on the hill have been to call her to resign.  

Yes, that’s right.  

Now I know some are reading this and wondering what I’m questioning. You may believe she should resign because she showed fear. Or because she didn’t understand this was part of the job. Or because she is giving women a bad name by showing weakness. Or because she never should have been working outside the home in the first place — she has children under the age of 18, after all.  

I’m not making any of that up, for the record. Those were responses all over social media and elsewhere yesterday commenting on her testimony. And we can’t say they were bots or trolls. Maybe some were — but I know or know of some of the names attached to the comments. There are real people saying these things. People with followings. And not for being absurd.  

The civilized response to learning such evil things are happening is not to — excuse my borrowing of a phrase — blame the victim. And I hesitate to even use that phrase. Barrett isn’t a victim so much as a leader — she’s in a position to report what’s happening. Her testimony makes us look in the mirror. We should stand with her in solidarity — this is wrong.  

And as for the mirror on us all — obviously, an ill-considered tweet is not of the same moral import as trying to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh (a man who identifies as a woman is serving a federal prison sentence for just this reason). But I don’t think we always see people in leadership, people in the news, people on social media — people we disagree with — as fellow human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, if you are a believer, and many commenters say so in their social media bios as they blast people.  

The natural human response to hearing a Supreme Court justice talk about threats on the lives of her and her family — and that of her colleagues — is not to say: Lady, welcome to America 250. This is how public service rolls.  

And: Lady, what are you doing in Washington, anyway? Why aren’t you barefoot and pregnant? Oh, you’re 54? Too bad. If you were pregnant, we’d be criticizing you even more than we’re ranting about Anne Hathaway being pregnant at 43!  

There is a remarkable disdain out there for Amy Coney Barrett. There has been before mainstream America even knew much about her. (The first was: She’s a believer who tries to really live her faith — can’t have that!) From the left. From the right. And from misogynists of any and all perspectives.  

People dislike her, again, because Trump appointed her. Because she’s a believing Catholic. Because of how she voted in Dobbs. For how she voted on other cases — some of the commentary in the wake of her security testimony insists she’s been changing her decisions in the hopes people might leave her family alone — if she is a vote against Trump. As if justices are politicos. That’s not the point of having a judicial branch. (If the president himself has regrets, perhaps there’s a Schoolhouse Rock lesson to be prepared.)

And, for being a woman in the public square. And that comes from right and left. From the left, she’s a Handmaiden of the Republican Patriarchy (or the Roman Catholic bishops, depending on what issue we’re talking about — sometimes it may be a two-fer!). From the right, she’s being accused of deprioritizing her children or misunderstanding the role of women in society.  

Excuse me for using this as an excuse to replay a classic X post from an NR alumna/contributor:

my favorite part of the Handmaid’s Tale is when the main character packs her seven kids and husband in a minivan to drive them to her Supreme Court nomination ceremony

— Alexandra DeSanctis Marr (@xan_desanctis) September 26, 2020

We have lost our minds. Everything is not politics. Everything is not a matter for commentary. Freedom is something God gives us, and we should have the decency to give people a little room to exercise it in how they raise their families and do their jobs. And, hey, can we all use our freedom to reject threats against the lives of people in public service, whether we agree with them on everything or anything or nothing?  

There is something seriously wrong with us if we can’t agree we have a problem after hearing that testimony yesterday. And the problem is not Amy Coney Barrett.  

Honestly, the only case I could see for her resigning is because we don’t deserve her and her decency, excellence, and sacrifice.