UNITED STATES: Justice Samuel Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court condemned the ongoing discussion over the institution’s legitimacy on Tuesday amid criticism of the court’s abortion rule from last June, claiming that such criticism focuses more on the judges’ “character” than their decisions.
Speaking in Washington at a Heritage Foundation event, Alito also criticised the leak of his draught judgement last May, which overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalised abortion in all 50 states, calling it “targets” of the justices.
The justice, who wrote the decision that officially overturned Roe in June, made the remarks in the midst of intense scrutiny of the court following that decision and others supported by the court’s conservative majority that widened gun rights and limited the government’s ability to combat climate change.
The public’s approval of the court as an institution whose decisions are founded on the law, not the political preferences of the judges, and which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is crucial to the court’s legitimacy. According to surveys, public support for the court is at an all-time low.
Alito did not specifically mention liberal Justice Elena Kagan, but he has recently expressed his concerns numerous times, most notably in September at a Chicago event where Alito stated that the legitimacy of the court may be in jeopardy if people start to perceive its members as trying to impose their personal preferences on society. In a discussion held last week at the University of Pennsylvania, she echoed those remarks.
Everyone is free to sharply critique the court’s rulings or the justifications for them, according to Alito, “But to say that the court is exhibiting a lack of integrity is something quite different. That goes to character, not to a disagreement with the result or the reasoning.”
As it moves the court in a rightward direction, the conservative majority has demonstrated an increasing readiness to take on contentious subjects.
The court’s next term, which started on October 3, is expected to be equally important.
The Voting Rights Act could be hindered by potential rulings in significant cases; affirmative action programmes used by colleges and universities to increase racial diversity on campus could be abolished; and it would be simpler for companies to refuse service to LGBT customers on the grounds of free speech rights.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, a recent appointee of President Joe Biden, has joined Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor in the court’s leftist majority.
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