Trump insiders knife Amy Coney Barrett after shock SCOTUS decision
Donald Trump's allies have branded his own Supreme Court pick Amy Coney Barrett a 'turncoat' after she authored the majority opinion handing the President a stinging defeat on mail-in ballots.
The ruling upheld a Mississippi law letting mail ballots arrive up to five days after Election Day, slamming shut a legal route for Trump in his war on postal votes, which he claims without evidence enable the fraud he blames for his 2020 defeat.
The court voted 5-4 with Trump-appointed Barrett penning the opinion which was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Prominent conservatives including Steve Bannon and Megyn Kelly railed against Barrett's opinion on Monday.
'Amy Coney Barrett. Man, she was a lovely pick. Did anybody do any due diligence here? Right to life crowd, did you do your due diligence? Are you happy with what you got?' Bannon said on his War Room podcast, a jab at the Catholic credentials used to sell her conservatism when Trump nominated her in his first term.
Megyn Kelly said on her show: 'Amy Coney Barrett is a turncoat, she's constantly sitting with the left.'
Republican Senator Eric Schmitt called it 'a shockingly wrong opinion' slamming Barrett for joining 'liberal justices' in a decision that 'is terrible for election integrity.'
Trump called the decision a 'tremendous loss' in a Truth Social post, later telling reporters in the Oval Office it was 'a little bit surprising' and claiming it 'gives people more time to vote illegally.'
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett speaks to an audience at the 30th anniversary of the University of Louisville McConnell Center in Louisville, Ky., Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021
Donald Trump and Judge Amy Coney Barrett walk to the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 26, 2020
Megyn Kelly attends the 2025 Time100 Gala at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2025 in New York City
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Barrett bluntly rejected arguments that federal election laws supersede Mississippi's statute allowing late-arriving absentee ballots.
'The election-day statutes do not set a deadline for ballot receipt, so they do not prevent Mississippi from counting ballots postmarked before election day yet received afterward,' she wrote.
Justice Samuel Alito penned a ferocious dissent, writing: 'From this Nation's founding until the last few decades of the 20th century, a period that spans the enactment of all three election-day statutes, having an "election" on a particular day meant completing ballot collection on that day.'
Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch signed Alito's dissent in full. Brett Kavanaugh backed his bottom line and his warning that late ballots invite fraud, but stopped short of endorsing two stretches of Alito's reasoning.
The defeat sharpens Trump's push for the SAVE America Act, his stalled voting bill demanding proof of citizenship to register and photo ID at the polls.
It would gut mail voting entirely, sparing only the sick, disabled, travelling and deployed troops.
Trump has already torched a landmark bipartisan housing bill over the deadlock, refusing to sign the first major fix to the housing crisis in three decades until Congress moves on his election overhaul.
Documented mail-ballot fraud is vanishingly rare. A Brookings Institution study last November logged an average of four fraud cases per 10 million votes across the last five US elections. Trump himself cast a mail ballot in a Florida special election earlier this year.
Join the discussionDoes this Supreme Court decision protect democracy or open the door to election chaos?
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Steve Bannon, political strategist and host of Steve Bannon's War Room, speaks during the Semafor World Economy 2026 conference in Washington, DC, on April 16, 2026
RNC chairman Joe Gruters vowed the fight goes on, accusing Democrats of 'inviting chaos at the ballot box by allowing elections to drag on for days and weeks after voters cast their ballots.'
More than a dozen states allow mail-in ballots to be counted after Election Day, including Alaska, Texas, Nevada, Virginia and California.
California Governor Gavin Newsom celebrated the ruling.
'This is a win for voters, plain and simple,' Newsom said on X. 'Today's ruling helps ensure mailed-in-ballots get counted and people's voices are heard through the democratic process.'
Badenoch blasts 'moaning' female Labour MPs over Burnham jobs 'quota'
Kemi Badenoch has told Labour women to earn a job in Andy Burnham's Cabinet instead of demanding they are handed jobs because of their gender.
The Tory leader lashed out today amid reports that female MPs are demanding the de-facto new prime minister introduce a 50:50 gender split 'quota' in his government.
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister also complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts.
But in a scathing article in the Times today Mrs Badenoch told them to 'stop moaning' and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'.
'There are many, many reasons why you shouldn't have any Milibands in the cabinet,' she said.
'But complaining that the boys haven't given them the right jobs or that the boys are taking all the jobs, just shows that Labour's women still don't get it.'
The idea of quotas was also attacked by Baroness Jacqui Smith, Labour's Skills Minister.
Asked by Times Radio if Mr Burnham should reserve jobs for women, she said: 'No, I think what Andy Burnham should be doing is building the very best team around him to change this country.'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband (above, right, in 2010) is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts
But Mrs Badenoch told them to pipe down and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party and seen by the BBC has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs after he succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.
'We are asking you to demonstrate this change from day one and address the toxicity and misogyny within our own party and government,' it said.
Labour has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had three, and Mrs Badenoch urged the government to follow its meritocratic example.
'If you run a meritocracy, then you do not have to worry about jobs for the boys,' she wrote.
'Every woman who is a Conservative MP, every woman who has ever won the leadership, has had to fight to get where she is.
'By contrast, Labour women are demanding guarantees from Burnham. But the truth is he doesn't have to give any guarantees.
'If none of Labour's women are prepared to get their hands dirty and challenge him for the leadership, their demands are toothless.'
'In fact, it's quite revealing that the women's parliamentary Labour Party has written to Burnham asking him to commit himself to at least 50 per cent female ministers.
'This has nothing to do with meritocracy. It is yet more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country.'
