How Women Get Sent to the Dog House

Amy Coney Barrett and the mindfuck of misogyny

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Last month, 238 Venezuelans were abducted and deported to a prison in El Salvador, El Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT). The images of said prison should shock even the most jaded conscience: men lined up so tightly that they must kneel with their heads on the backs of their neighbor, their eyes lowered, their heads shaved during the intake process. They can then expect no sunlight, inadequate food and water, and housing in cells where 80 to 100 men are kept shoulder-to-shoulder. They have no blankets or pillows, no visits or phone calls, and they mostly sit in silence all day long for fear of being punished by the armed guards wearing balaclavas. Abuse, torture, disease, and death are all rampant. There are mass graves for the prisoners who die; their families are not notified of their passing.

This is hell on earth. And most of the men Trump sent there have no criminal record. All of them were sent there without anything resembling due process. One has turned out to be an American citizen.

This week, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling reversing the decision of the lower courts to halt these abductions of Venezuelan nationals under the 1789 Alien Enemies Act, albeit with the important caveat that they must be given an opportunity to seek judicial review before deportation. In an unexpected move, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett partly joined the dissent of the liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “The government cannot usher detainees, including plaintiffs, onto planes in a shroud of secrecy, as it did on March 15, 2025,” she wrote. As the result of this, Coney Barrett has been widely decried and punished.

The Republican Senator Mike Lee took to X to call her position “disappointing.” He was swiftly retweeted by Elon Musk: “Suicidal empathy is a civilizational risk,” Musk declared. The conservative Baptist leader William Wolfe then posted a picture of all four female Supreme Court Justices: “The four Horsewomen of Suicidal Empathy,” read his caption. Conservative critics joined in, condemning “Amy Commie Barrett,” and calling her a “POS” and a “disgusting fraud” in one case. “By now we all know ACB joined the three women on supreme court (baby butchering supporters) against deportation of illegal criminals. What special kind of m*rons are these women?!! What part of “illegal immigrants/criminals have no constitutional rights”… do [they] not understand? All four of these women betrayed every taxpaying citizen,” declared conservative Catholic priest James Altman. Tricia Flanagan, who twice ran unsuccessfully for congress as a Republican in New Jersey, was even franker: “Here’s the simple truth that no one wants to admit—most women are not emotionally fit to be on the Supreme Court.”

It would be natural to conclude that those feeling or expressing such displeasure towards Amy Coney Barrett this week—doubtless including Donald Trump, who appointed her in his last term—actually believe that women are too empathic and emotional to hold masculine-coded positions of power and authority. But that’s a fundamental misconception. What’s going on is far more insidious.