After the Republican justices of the United States Supreme Court were 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 publicly express their disappointment with the decision and their support for reproductive rights.
Earlier this month, the European Union parliament went so far as to formally condemn the end of constitutional abortion protections in the United States.
As Politico reported, the reactions did not escape the notice of the man who wrote the judgment.
Justice Samuel Alito, author of last month’s groundbreaking Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, mocks foreign leaders who lamented his opinion stripping half a century of federal constitutional protection for abortion rights in the USA. As the keynote speaker at a religious freedom conference in Rome last week, sponsored by the University of Notre Dame, Alito scoffed at the torrent of international criticism of his opinion for the five-judge majority. .
“I had the honor of writing this term of office, I believe, the only Supreme Court decision in the history of this institution that has been lambasted by a whole host of foreign leaders, who felt perfectly fine to comment American law,” Alito complained. “One of them was former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but he paid the price.”
Justice, looking a lot like a Republican trying to impress social conservatives, continued to complain that people aren’t religious enough by his standards.
He lamented “the growing hostility to religion, or at least to traditional religious beliefs which are contrary to the new moral code which is gaining ascendancy in certain sectors”.
Watching a video extract From Alito’s words, it was hard not to notice that the conservative jurist seemed indifferent to appearances. There was no pretension. Alito apparently saw no need to present himself as an unbiased and unbiased judge.
Instead, his audience saw a politician giving a political speech, mocking other politicians who dared to disagree with him, and congratulating himself on achieving a political goal.
What complicates matters is the familiarity of these circumstances. As regular readers may recall, less than two years ago Alito made startlingly political remarks at a Federalist Society event, where the conservative complained about security restrictions public during the pandemic, before directing his frustrations at marriage equality, reproductive rights, and five sitting U.S. senators, each of whom is a Democrat.
“This speech is like waking up from a vampire dream,” Kim Wehle, a University of Baltimore law professor and former federal prosecutor, wrote shortly after. “Unscrupulously biased, political and even angry. I can’t imagine why Alito did this publicly. Totally inappropriate and prejudicial to the Supreme Court.
Last fall, the same judge did it again, delivering pointed — and sometimes factually dubious — remarks at Notre Dame Law School that included criticism from American journalists.
This led Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, answer“Judges turning into political actors, giving speeches attacking journalists, it’s terrible for justice and terrible for democracy.”
By his decisions, Alito has already undermined the credibility of the High Court. By his speeches, the judges further damage public confidence in the institution.