Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has warned about threats to free speech in the United Kingdom.

Coney made the remarks during an interview with Bishop Robert Barron for an episode of his podcast, Bishop Barron Presents, which was released on Sunday.

“Think about what’s happening with respect to free speech rights in the U.K.,” Barrett said during a discussion about the purpose of law. “Contrary opinions or opinions that are not in the mainstream are not being tolerated, and they’re even being criminalized. Because of the First Amendment, that can’t happen here.”

Barrett has been contacted for further comment via an email to a Supreme Court spokesperson.

Why It Matters

Some critics have focused on the Online Safety Act, rolled out this year, which requires social media companies to remove illegal content on their platforms. Critics say is being implemented too broadly and has resulted in the censorship of legal content.  

Others have pointed to specific cases, including that of a British Catholic woman who recently became the first person charged for silently praying outside an abortion facility under a new buffer zone law. Meanwhile, police in London and Manchester recently pledged to arrest people who chant “globalize the intifada,” raising free speech concerns.

What To Know 

In the interview, Barron refers to the Catholic thinker John Courtney Murray and his argument that in a pluralistic society, peace depends on shared principles. He goes on to ask Barrett whether what Catholics call “natural law” or “basic moral intuitions” can still play a role today.

But Barrett says the Constitution “could help to that end.”

“If we think about free speech or freedom of religion, I think we can see those guarantees as a way in which they can function as articles of peace,” she said.

She noted that in the U.S., the First Amendment prevents the government from criminalizing opinions, adding that it doesn’t just allow free speech but also forces tolerance.

“I think the First Amendment protects, guarantees, forces us to respect one another and to respect disagreement. There’s a tolerance of different faiths, a tolerance of different ideas…we can see what would happen if you didn’t have the guarantee to hold that in place.”

Barrett, who is a devout Catholic, jointed the nation’s highest court in 2020 after President Donald Trump appointed her to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her appointment cemented the court’s conservative supermajority, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.

What People Are Saying 

Vice President JD Vance said at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year: “In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.” 

He added: ”I will admit that sometimes the loudest voices for censorship have come, not from within Europe, but from within my own country.”

A U.S. State Department report on human rights practices in the U.K. released over the summer said, “significant human rights issues” in the U.K. included “credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression.”

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told reporters in September: “Free speech is one of the founding values of the United Kingdom, and we protect it jealously and fiercely and always will.”

He added: ”I draw a limit between free speech and the speech of those that want to peddle pedophilia and suicide (on) social media to children. Therefore, I’m all for free speech, but I’m also for protecting children from things that will harm them.”

What Happens Next

The debate over free speech in the U.K. is sure to continue in the coming months.

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