OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito made his first appearance since penning the opinion that ended Roe V Wade and he had a ton to say.
The speech, focused on religious freedom, came last week but was only publicized on Thursday by Notre Dame Law School, CNN reported.
“Religious liberty is under attack in many places because it is dangerous to those who want to hold complete power,” the Justice said. “It also probably grows out of something dark and deep in the human DNA — a tendency to distrust and dislike people who are not like ourselves.”
He even took aim at foreign critics of the decision to end Roe V Wade.
“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,” he said as the crowd laughed.
“One of these was former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but he paid the price,” he quipped.
“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,” he said of Prince Harry.
He said that there is a challenge to “convince people that religious liberty is worth defending if they don’t think that religion is a good thing that deserves protection.”
“It provides a way for religiously diverse people to hold together and to flourish,” he said, the “American experience illustrates that well.”
A stunning new report is casting new light on some behind-the-scenes activity involving U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts as the nation’s highest court was considering overturning Roe v. Wade.
According to CNN, sources told the outlet that Roberts attempted to persuade Justice Brett Kavanaugh and possibly Justice Amy Coney Barrett to preserve the ‘Roe’ precedent while also ruling in favor of the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban that was at the center of the case:
Multiple sources told CNN that Roberts’ overtures this spring, particularly to Kavanaugh, raised fears among conservatives and hope among liberals that the chief could change the outcome in the most closely watched case in decades. Once the draft was published by Politico, conservatives pressed their colleagues to try to hasten the release of the final decision, lest anything suddenly threaten their majority.
Roberts’ persuasive efforts, difficult even from the start, were thwarted by the sudden public nature of the state of play. He can usually work in private, seeking and offering concessions, without anyone beyond the court knowing how he or other individual justices have voted or what they may be writing…
The May 2 disclosure of the first draft in Dobbs made an already difficult task nearly impossible. It shattered the usual secrecy of negotiations and likely locked in votes if they were not already solid.
To the extent that liberals had hoped that the original vote by conservatives would change, that hope faded. Meanwhile, CNN has learned, that Politico’s disclosure accelerated the urgency of the conservative side to try to issue the opinion before any other possible disruptions.
Roberts has famously switched his opinion in the past. In 2012, when it appeared as though the high court would rule that Obamacare’s mandate on Americans to purchase health insurance would be overturned, the chief justice voted instead to preserve the law.
As for Kavanaugh, CNN noted that he gave off indicators that he was in favor of overturning ‘Roe.’
The network also noted that he voted that way during a private justices’ conference session not long afterward. That said, Kavanaugh has wavered in his views in the past and has at least been open to being persuaded to join Roberts’ opinions, which often run afoul of the other conservatives on the nation’s highest court.
