[ad_1]
Samuel Alito became the latest U.S. Supreme Court justice to defend the panel’s political independence, calling criticisms of recent ultra-conservative decisions, including the tacit approval of a ban on the panel, an attempt to intimidate. abortion in Texas.
Alito’s speech at the University of Notre Dame on Thursday echoed comments from fellow Conservative Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas who insisted their decisions were not guided by political beliefs.
All three are part of the conservative majority that allowed the country’s most extreme abortion law to come into effect last month in a 5-4 decision. The court also interrupted its summer recess to make emergency rulings aimed at denying the Biden administration’s efforts to extend a moratorium on Covid-19 deportations and repeal a Trump-era immigration policy .
“The catchy and ominous term ‘ghost case’ has been used to describe the court as having been captured by a dangerous cabal that uses underhand and inappropriate methods to achieve its ends,” Alito told Notre Dame, referring to increasingly common emergency requests. who appear before the judges outside of ordinary sessions.
“This representation fuels unprecedented efforts to intimidate or undermine the court as an independent institution. There was nothing new or obscure in the procedures we followed in these cases. It’s hard to see how we can handle most emergency situations any differently.
Recent polls from Gallup and Marquette University Law School show that public confidence in the court is at an all-time low. In particular, allowing Texas to ban all abortions after detection of embryonic heart activity, usually around six weeks, drew a furious backlash from critics who saw it as a de facto reversal of Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision which protects the right to abortion. .
In scathing dissent, liberal judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote: “The court has silently acquiesced in a state’s enactment of a law that flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedent. The act is a breathtaking act of defiance – against the constitution, the precedents of this court, and the rights of women seeking abortions across Texas.
Alito rejected such a criticism.
“Put aside the bogus and inflammatory claim that we canceled Roe v Wade,” he said. “We didn’t do anything like that. And we said so expressly in our order. The request was filed approximately 36 hours before the law came into force. It was not possible to have oral argument during this period.
The court will come back to abortion at its next session, which will meet on Monday. On December 1, judges are due to hear arguments on an appeal from Mississippi, which defends a law banning abortion after 15 weeks and asks the court to overturn Roe v Wade.
Alito’s decision to join Barrett and Thomas in attacking critics and asserting that decisions are made on philosophical rather than political grounds has angered observers who have noted “friendly” venues for such speeches.
Alito and Thomas spoke at Notre Dame, an Indiana college with a strongly conservative student base where, in 2019, then Attorney General Bill Barr gave a speech on religious freedom that some considered like a “dog whistle” to Trump-aligned conservatives.
Coney Barrett chose the McConnell Center in Kentucky for remarks alongside Mitch McConnell, the Republican Minority Leader of the Senate for whom the place is named. As the majority leader, McConnell blocked Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s choice for a court seat, for nearly a year, then installed three Donald Trump choices in record time, including Barrett, including the confirmation came eight days before Trump’s defeat.
The court, Barrett insisted, “is not made up of a bunch of partisan hacks,” while judges must be “super vigilant to ensure that they don’t let personal biases creep into their decisions. “.
“Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett expressed concern over the death of irony on Sunday,” said Scott Shapiro, a professor at Yale Law School. tweeted in return.
Veteran Liberal Judge Stephen Breyer also defended the court, telling CNN last month he believed the panel was motivated by judicial philosophy, not politics.
“It’s not really fair to say it’s political in the ordinary sense of politics,” said Breyer, 83.
In June, a group of lawyers said Breyer should retire, to allow Joe Biden to keep his promise to appoint a black female judge. Breyer said he had no intention of dying in office, but made no commitment to step down.
[ad_2]
Source link