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Barrett: ‘I don’t think of myself as a swing justice’

Justice Barrett cited threats to her family as the reason for keeping recusal explanations private amid rising hostility towards federal judges, with bomb and pizza delivery threats reported.

  • On Thursday, Justice Amy Coney Barrett recoiled at the suggestion she is a swing justice, saying she has `learned to tune it out` and `I don't think of myself as a swing justice`.
  • Justice Barrett said recusals are prompted by financial conflict disclosures, lower-court involvement, and nuanced cases involving friends, family or `deeply held convictions`, which she called `a tricky standard`.
  • Law enforcement received a bomb threat against Barrett's sister, Charleston, South Carolina, and members of her family got two unsolicited pizza deliveries, while other federal judges also faced pizza orders.
  • In April 2023 the ethics principles said justices may provide recusal summaries, but the formal ethics code adopted seven months later omits public recusal guidance; Kagan and Democratic appointees typically explain recusals.
  • Barrett has at times sided with Chief Justice John Roberts, who has joined liberals in recent years, and said it is `very frustrating` when people blame `the Trump relationship` rather than legal reasoning.
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Politico broke the news in on Thursday, September 25, 2025.
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