Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito responded to criticism from foreign leaders regarding the court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in a speech in Italy last week.
Alito spoke at a religious liberty summit in Rome organized by Notre Dame Law School on July 21, according to Reuters.
“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, all but confirming he was speaking about the June court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The justice mentioned criticism from international leaders such as Prince Harry, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Alito saved a jab for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, alluding to Johnson’s imminent ouster from office. Johnson has called the Dobbs ruling a “big step backwards,” Reuters reported.
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
Alito sarcastically claimed to have been “wounded” by Prince Harry’s comparison of the Dobbs decision to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It’s rare for Supreme Court justices to speak publicly about domestic politics, and even rarer for them to speak about international affairs.
The George W. Bush-appointed justice warned against religious intolerance and persecution in his speech, arguing for the protection of religious liberties.
Alito remarked on the Roman setting of his speech, mentioning the persecution of Christians in antiquity.
The judge pointed to the Constitution’s protection of religious liberty as a rare exception in human history, noting that religious persecution has instead been the unfortunate norm.
