Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett accepted an invitation to participate in an event at the University of Minnesota. The justice and former law school dean Robert Stein held a conversation-style question and answer kind of session.

Amy Coney Barrett is a conservative-leaning justice so there were about 200 protesters who came out to do their thing. A small group of protesters in front of the first balcony in the University of Minnesota’s Northrop auditorium interrupted Coney Barrett. She was about to begin discussing the legislative origins of the first woman Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor’s commitment to federalism. The protesters chanted, “Not the court, not the state, the people will decide their fate.”

The interruption was brief. The event was heavily secured. Within a minute of the interruption, police removed the protesters from inside the auditorium. They went outside and joined the others who were protesting outside the building.

After these individuals disrupted the event and were removed by police, they were greeted with cheers by the crowd outside. pic.twitter.com/ewXcEHsVhu

— Hayley Feland (@HayleyFeland) October 17, 2023

Robert Stein resumed the question and answer conversation. He said, “We really are Minnesota nice; we don’t treat other people like that very often. We really are glad you’re here.” Stein funds the lecture series. Amy Coney Barrett did not receive payment for her speech.

The tone of the 90-miute event was characterized as exceedingly gentle questioning from Stein. It was noted in reporting that he did not press her with strong follow-up questions on controversial matters. One such topic was the Supreme Court’s code of ethics. Progressives are hellbent to get Justice Clarence Thomas off the Court and think they have found a way to do that by accusing him of corruptly accepting generous gifts from wealthy supporters and not properly reporting those gifts. Thomas has not been shown to deliberately cross the line of ethical behavior.

Doesn’t it seem racist that progressives always set their sights on tearing down Justice Thomas? That would be the narrative if the table was turned and conservatives criticized a black progressive justice.

One report of the event noted that Coney Barrett “sat silently” as the protest inside the auditorium took place.

As the protesters chanted in the balcony, Coney Barrett sat silently on the stage in her fitted beige pantsuit, neither reacting to nor mentioning the chants among the 2,000 spectators that included numerous judges, justices, lawyers and students at the ticketed, but free public event.

That made me chuckle because the woman has seven children. She is quite used to reacting without emotion to drama playing out in front of her by others. She is a Supreme Court justice who listens to all kinds of legal cases and is tasked with unbiased responses. Why would anyone think that some college student protesters would shake her up and cause an animated reaction from her? They must not have seen her confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate when she was attacked for being a conservative woman of faith. The late Senator Dianne Feinstein famously told her, “The dogma lives loudly within you.” It was a slam against her Catholic faith. Coney Barrett is a former law school professor at Notre Dame University.

The central focus of the protesters against Coney Barrett’s appearance was her vote in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case in 2022. That landmark decision found that there is no right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution. The decision overruled both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood, sending abortion law back to the states, as it was pre-1973 and Roe v. Wade. That decision was a big issue in the 2022 midterm elections and will likely be in the 2024 presidential election cycle, too.

Protesting the heavily secured event outside Northrop were an estimated 200 people, who oppose Coney Barrett’s position on the court as well as decisions she’s participated in including the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Protesters could not be heard or seen from inside the building.

Coney Barrett was given some standard soft questions like what advice she would give to law students. She gave a mom kind of answer, which I would expect. “Take advantage of all of your opportunities to learn about lots of things and to challenge yourselves. Expose yourself to ideas you might not think you agree with.”

The protest was planned in advance and that is why there was increased security for the event. With the political atmosphere that allows protests in front of Supreme Court justices’ homes as though that is normal behavior, it was probably comforting for Coney Barrett to see the increased presence of law enforcement. Laws, like protesting in front of a Supreme Court justice’s home is illegal, don’t matter if it is a conservative justice. Local law enforcement don’t arrest the protesters. Supreme Court justices have gotten increased security details because of unhinged progressives. Even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer thought it was acceptable when he went in front of the Supreme Court building during a protest and threatened the well-being of Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. None of that is normal or acceptable behavior. It’s how people get killed.

Nearly 700 students have signed a petition demanding the U rescind her invitation. Some students protested outside of Northrop Auditorium during the event which started at 4 p.m.

“I really want her to see that college students who are new to the voting scene, I’m 18, that we had an opinion on Roe v Wade that we don’t think was listened to,” freshman Reagan Rogers said.

Note the first name of that student. Heh.

Like clockwork, a conservative is invited to speak on a college campus and immediately progressives go into a frenzy. Petitions to have the invitation rescinded are drawn up and protests are organized. Only progressive groupthink is acceptable to these people.