AOC slams Alito for ‘politicized’ and ‘alarming’ Roe v. Wade remarks
Published: July 29, 2022
By Nicole Lyn Pesce
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito mocked foreign leaders who criticized the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and called out ‘hostility to religion’ in viral Rome speech
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has been criticized for his keynote
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito mocked foreign leaders who criticized the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and called out ‘hostility to religion’ in viral Rome speech
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has been criticized for his keynote
address on religious freedom in Rome.
ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
‘Remember: it was Alito’s opinion that leaked. That fact paired with his politicized remarks below should be alarming to anyone.’
That’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reacting, on Twitter, to a viral speech that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito gave in Rome.
A bearded Alito delivered a keynote address for Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative on Thursday that focused on religious freedom. It courted controversy by mocking “foreign leaders” — including outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron — who spoke out against the Supreme Court’s controversial decision to repeal Roe v. Wade, which had established a constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. for decades.
Related: What percentage of Americans support Roe v. Wade? How people really feel about abortion, according to polls.
As Ocasio-Cortez noted, Alito’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked in early May, more than a month before the Supreme Court went public with the decision on June 24. Alito did not comment on the leak during his speech. And it is not publicly known whether the Court is investigating the leak, as Chief Justice John Roberts ordered in May.
Read more: ‘The Court has no comment’: It’s not publicly known whether the May leak of Alito’s draft opinion on Roe v. Wade is still under investigation
Alito’s remarks in Rome marked the first time he has spoken publicly since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the U.S. became one of four countries to have rolled back abortion rights since 1994, joining El Salvador, Nicaragua and Poland.
“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,” Alito said Thursday, adding that these officials felt “perfectly fine commenting on American law.”
Related: European Parliament condemns striking down of federal abortion right by U.S. Supreme Court
He mistakenly referred to Johnson as a “former prime minister,” even though Johnson won’t step down until September. Alito joked that Johnson, felled by several scandals, had “paid the price” for commenting on the Roe decision, which drew laughs in the audience. He then noted that Macron and Trudeau are “still in office.”
Alito claimed that a “growing hostility to religion” has emerged in the West, adding that “religious liberty is under attack in many places, because it is dangerous to those who want to hold complete power. 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.”
Critics including Ocasio-Cortez questioned the appropriateness of Alito’s remarks about religion and foreign leaders, noting the comments put the impartiality of the justice himself as well as that of highest court of the land into question. “The Supreme Court is in a legitimacy crisis,” the second-term House Democrat wrote.
Alito’s speech went viral, leading his name to trend on Twitter on Friday. “These [justices] are rightwing political actors and aren’t even trying to hide it,” tweeted MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan.
Jezebel writer Laura Bassett described Alito as “gloating” over repealing Roe v. Wade amid an “international comedy tour.”
‘Remember: it was Alito’s opinion that leaked. That fact paired with his politicized remarks below should be alarming to anyone.’
That’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reacting, on Twitter, to a viral speech that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito gave in Rome.
A bearded Alito delivered a keynote address for Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative on Thursday that focused on religious freedom. It courted controversy by mocking “foreign leaders” — including outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron — who spoke out against the Supreme Court’s controversial decision to repeal Roe v. Wade, which had established a constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. for decades.
Related: What percentage of Americans support Roe v. Wade? How people really feel about abortion, according to polls.
As Ocasio-Cortez noted, Alito’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked in early May, more than a month before the Supreme Court went public with the decision on June 24. Alito did not comment on the leak during his speech. And it is not publicly known whether the Court is investigating the leak, as Chief Justice John Roberts ordered in May.
Read more: ‘The Court has no comment’: It’s not publicly known whether the May leak of Alito’s draft opinion on Roe v. Wade is still under investigation
Alito’s remarks in Rome marked the first time he has spoken publicly since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the U.S. became one of four countries to have rolled back abortion rights since 1994, joining El Salvador, Nicaragua and Poland.
“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,” Alito said Thursday, adding that these officials felt “perfectly fine commenting on American law.”
Related: European Parliament condemns striking down of federal abortion right by U.S. Supreme Court
He mistakenly referred to Johnson as a “former prime minister,” even though Johnson won’t step down until September. Alito joked that Johnson, felled by several scandals, had “paid the price” for commenting on the Roe decision, which drew laughs in the audience. He then noted that Macron and Trudeau are “still in office.”
Alito claimed that a “growing hostility to religion” has emerged in the West, adding that “religious liberty is under attack in many places, because it is dangerous to those who want to hold complete power. 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.”
Critics including Ocasio-Cortez questioned the appropriateness of Alito’s remarks about religion and foreign leaders, noting the comments put the impartiality of the justice himself as well as that of highest court of the land into question. “The Supreme Court is in a legitimacy crisis,” the second-term House Democrat wrote.
Alito’s speech went viral, leading his name to trend on Twitter on Friday. “These [justices] are rightwing political actors and aren’t even trying to hide it,” tweeted MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan.
Jezebel writer Laura Bassett described Alito as “gloating” over repealing Roe v. Wade amid an “international comedy tour.”
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