After Republican US Supreme Court justices overturned Roe vs. Wade, it wasn’t just Americans who were outraged. Several international allies — and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron — were quick to express their public disappointment with the ruling and their support for reproductive rights.
Earlier this month, the European Union parliament went so far as to formally condemn the end of constitutional protections for abortion in the United States.
as a politician reportedthe reactions did not escape the attention of the man who wrote the ruling.
Judge Samuel Alito, author of the landmark Supreme Court decision last month that overturned Roe v. Wade mocks foreign leaders who have lamented his view of removing half a century of federal constitutional protection for abortion rights in the US during a surprise keynote appearance at a conference on religious freedom in Rome last week. sponsored by the University of Notre Dame, Alito scoffed at the torrent of international criticism of his opinion on the majority of the five courts of justice.
“I had the honor this term of writing, I think, the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been criticized by a whole series of foreign leaders, who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law,” he said. Alito complained. “One of them was former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but he paid the price.”
The judge, who sounds a lot like a Republican trying to impress social conservatives, proceeded to complain that people aren’t religious enough by his standards.
The lament the “increasing hostility to religion, or at least traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that is on the rise in some quarters.”
Looking at a video excerpt From Alito’s statements, it was hard not to notice that the conservative jurist seemed indifferent to appearances. There was no pretense. Apparently, Alito did not see the need to appear as a dispassionate and impartial judge.
Rather, his audience saw a politician giving a political speech, ridiculing other politicians who dared to disagree with him, and patting himself on the back for having succeeded in a political goal.
What complicates matters is the familiarity of these circumstances. As regular readers will remember, it was less than two years ago that Alito delivered surprisingly political comments at a Federalist Society event, where the conservative complained about public safety restrictions during the pandemic, before voicing his frustrations about marriage equality, reproductive rights and five sitting US senators, each of whom He turned out to be a Democrat.
“This speech is like waking me up from a vampire dream,” said Kim Wehle, a University of Baltimore law professor and former federal prosecutor. wrote shortly after “Unscrupulous biased, political and even angry. I can’t imagine why Alito would do this publicly. Totally inappropriate and damaging to the Supreme Court.”
Last fall, the same justice I did it againdelivering sharp, and at times dubious, remarks at Notre Dame Law School, including criticism of American journalists.
He brought Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, answer“Judges becoming political actors, giving speeches attacking journalists, it’s terrible for the court and terrible for democracy.”
Through his failings, Alito has already undermined the credibility of the high court. Through their speeches, the magistrates further damage the public’s trust in the institution.