(Washington) Judge Samuel Alito has scoffed at criticism from foreign leaders, including Justin Trudeau, of the Supreme Court ruling he authored overturning Roe v. Wade, or the constitutional right to abortion.
Posted yesterday at 6:53 p.m.
His first public comments since last month’s decision drew more criticism as well as some support.
Speaking in Rome at a religious freedom summit, Judge Alito, 72, spent only a few minutes on the subject of abortion, and only to discuss his foreign critics — unusual behavior for a high court judge.
Dressed in a suit and sporting a beard that he sometimes lets grow when the court is out of session, Mr. Alito said the decision he had written had been “blasted by a whole series of foreign leaders”, then joked that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had “paid the price” for his comments. Mr Johnson called the decision a “big step backwards” shortly before stepping down due to unrelated ethics inquiries.
The ruling by the court’s conservative majority led to a dozen states banning or severely restricting abortions within days. Eventually, half of the US states should ban or seriously restrict the procedure.
Alito also had the audience laughing at the lecture, sponsored by the University of Notre Dame Law School, when he said “what really hurt me” were the remarks made by Prince Harry of Great Britain. Speaking at the United Nations last week, Harry referred to the “rollback of constitutional rights here in the United States” as a series of converging crises that also included the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also caught Alito’s attention during his July 21 speech in Rome at an invitation-only event. The law school released the video this week and Mr. Alito had not been identified in advance as a speaker at the conference.
Mr Trudeau’s press secretary, Cecely Roy, said he “will always defend women’s constitutional rights, including the right to choose and access to abortion”.
The judge’s speech drew criticism on Friday from U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who wrote in a tweet that the remarks were politicized and “should be alarming to anyone.”
While judges regularly engage in pointed exchanges with their colleagues, they rarely respond to outside criticism.