United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito used irony to rebut international leaders’ criticism of the court’s decision that changed the understanding of Roe v. Wade, reversing the federal guarantee of the right to abortion in the country.
A representative of the conservative wing of the court, now in a 6-3 majority, Alito authored a draft of the decision, which was leaked in May. The change in jurisprudence took place in June and was followed by the implementation of a series of restrictions on the procedure in different states.
In his first public comments since the ruling, the magistrate made jokes involving comments on the case from figures including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Alito also mocked British Prince Harry’s speech at the UN (United Nations).
The magistrate’s speech took place at a lecture on religious freedom in Rome, organized by the Faculty of Law at Notre Dame University. The speech, which was not previously announced by either Alito or the university, took place last week (21), but the video of the conference was only published by the institution on Thursday (28).
The American said he was honored to have had the opportunity to write the decision, further stating that the new jurisprudence was the only one in the history of the Supreme Court to be “criticized by a series of foreign leaders, who felt perfectly comfortable commenting on aspects of American law. “.
“One of them was Boris Johnson, but he paid the price,” scoffed the judge, referring to the prime minister’s resignation following a wave of layoffs in his cabinet and series of scandals in office.
“But what really hurt me — what really hurt me — was when the Duke of Sussex [prÃncipe Harry] addressed the United Nations and appeared to equate the decision not to be nominated with the Russian attack on Ukraine,” he added, in a sarcastic tone. The audience responded to the statements with laughter.
In a speech in New York last week, Harry called 2022 “a painful year in a painful decade” before citing the Ukraine War and “the rollback of constitutional rights here in the US”.
Boris called the decision “a big step backwards”. Macron said, on the day of the decision, that the voluntary termination of pregnancy was a fundamental right and that women’s freedoms were compromised by the Supreme Court. Trudeau called the decision horrific.
Elena Kagan, a judge on the progressive wing of the US Supreme Court, said on the 21st, at an event in Montana (USA), that “it would be dangerous for democracy” if the court lost the trust of the American public.
The highest instance of the US judiciary today has a conservative majority configuration, which has been increasingly reflected in recent decisions – from abortion rights to decisions impacting the climate crisis, religious freedom and the carrying of weapons.
Opinion polls showed a drop in public approval for the institution following the overthrow of Roe v. Wade: Confidence hit an all-time low of 25%, down 11 percentage points this year alone.
