Justice Samuel Alito, the author of the landmark 6-3 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling that upended a half-century of Supreme Court abortion precedent, took a swipe at world leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for criticizing U.S. law.
Referencing Johnson’s plans to step down from his post after facing an onslaught of criticism of his leadership by members of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party, Alito said: “He paid the price.”
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Alito hit other world leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron, for butting into U.S. politics after the high court allowed states to impose laws severely limiting and restricting abortions following the June 24 ruling.
“I had the honor this term of writing, I think, the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law,” Alito said, sporting a beard and giving a previously unannounced speech that was delivered on July 21 at a conference on religious liberty in Rome hosted by the Religious Liberty Institute at Notre Dame Law School.
In his Rome speech on religious liberty, Justice Alito mocked “foreign leaders” who condemned his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, including Boris Johnson, Macron, Trudeau, and … Prince Harry.
Of Boris, Alito quipped: “He paid the price.” https://t.co/NPqalw0KA6 pic.twitter.com/xC0qguZ31n
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) July 28, 2022
A video of Alito’s nearly 36-minute speech, which was the first he’s made since the written decision last month, was uploaded by the university on Thursday afternoon. Not only did the Bush appointee blast world leaders, but he also joked about Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, who brought up the high court’s abortion ruling during a U.N. speech last week.
“But what really wounded me, what really wounded me, was when the Duke of Sussex addressed the United Nations and seemed to compare the decision whose name may not be spoken with the Russian attack on Ukraine,” Alito said in a mocking voice.
In a July 18 speech, Harry spoke about the war in Ukraine in the same speech in which he lamented “the rolling back of constitutional rights here in the United States,” presumably referring to the Dobbs decision.
Alito, a Roman Catholic, focused a large portion of his speech arguing that the support of religious liberty has become further eroded by a “growing hostility to religion.”
“The problem that looms is not just indifference to religion, it’s not just ignorance about religion,” Alito said. “There’s also growing hostility to religion, or at least the traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that is ascendant in some sectors.”
“It is hard to convince people that religious liberty is worth defending if they don’t think that religion is a good thing that deserves protection,” Alito added.
During a separate public appearance at a Montana judicial conference on July 21, Justice Elena Kagan, a Democratic appointee to the high court, warned about the court losing its legitimacy if it strays too far from public sentiment.
“I’m not talking about any particular decision or even any particular series of decisions, but if over time the court loses all connection with the public and with public sentiment, that’s a dangerous thing for a democracy,” Kagan said at the conference.
Public approval ratings of the Supreme Court have plummeted in recent months, with only 38% of the country saying it approved of its performance, according to a Marquette Law School poll. The latest numbers are a dramatic drop from last summer, when a similar poll showed a 60% approval rating, compared to 39% who disapproved.
While world leaders’ opinions are not included in such data, their words reflect the negative sentiments brewing in the United States. Johnson previously called the Dobbs decision “a big step backward,” and Macron decried that women’s rights are now “compromised” by the court.
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Alito, one of five Republican-appointed justices who sharee the bench with three Democratic appointees, was the keynote speaker at the Religious Liberty Summit’s Gala Dinner last week, an event that has been held annually since 2020 with a focus on upholding the importance of religious freedom.
The institute and its faculty members have filed at least five amicus briefs to the Supreme Court on questions regarding religious freedoms.
