Chief Justice Roberts hopes people won’t lose faith in SCOTUS because of the leak

As many have noted, it absolutely seems like the Republican Party is running a play with the leak of the Supreme Court decision on abortion rights. The opinion was always going to be released publicly in June/July, then someone decided to leak Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion to Politico on Monday. Now the entire Republican Party seems focused on “who leaked the draft opinion” and “we need an investigation into the leaker” rather than the fact that the right-wing waged a successful 49-year campaign against reproductive rights. They would rather talk about “the leaker” instead of the fact that American women’s uteruses belong to the state. They would rather talk about the leaker instead of the fact that police will be empowered to arrest and jail women for seeking abortions. Or even miscarrying. Speaking of, Chief Justice John Roberts had a lot to say about the leak yesterday.

Chief Justice John Roberts said Thursday that the leak of a draft opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade is “absolutely appalling” and stressed that he hopes “one bad apple” would not change “people’s perception” of the nation’s highest court and workforce.

In his first public appearance since the leak on Monday, Roberts also said that if “the person” or “people” behind the leak think it will affect the work of the Supreme Court, they are “foolish.”

Roberts was speaking at a meeting of lawyers and judges at the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference, while the court is on a brief recess. The justices will meet together again during their closed-door conference in Washington on May 12.

Roberts’ comments come as demonstrations on both sides of the issue have erupted across the country and supporters of abortion rights fear that states in large swaths of the South and the Midwest are prepared to bar the procedure when the court issues a final decision by early July.

The draft opinion — penned by Justice Samuel Alito and published by Politico Monday night — calls on the court to overrule Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 opinion that legalized abortion nationwide. “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” Alito wrote. He said the Roe was “egregiously wrong from the start” and that its reasoning was “exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.”

Roberts did not want to completely overturn Roe v. Wade, meaning he would have dissented from part of the opinion, sources tell CNN, likely with the court’s three liberals. The court has confirmed the authenticity of the draft opinion, but stressed that it was not final and did not reflect the final position of any member of the court.

[From CNN]

So Roberts didn’t vote with the right-wing justices anyway, that answers one of my questions. Overturning Roe was able to get five votes on the Supreme Court without the Chief Justice, a Bush appointee. Think about that. As for this: Roberts “stressed that he hopes “one bad apple” would not change “people’s perception” of the nation’s highest court and workforce”… are you f–king kidding me? Does this piece of sh-t understand that our “perception” of the Supreme Court is that a predator, a sexual harasser and a member of a Christian cult all decided to destroy women’s reproductive rights like it was nothing? The leak is not the f–king story!! The subjugation of women is the story. And I can’t believe Roberts was stupid enough to invoke the “bad apple” idiom. The saying is “one bad apple spoils the whole barrel.” There are five bad apples in the Supreme Court. Six, really. And they’ve delegitimized themselves.

Photos courtesy of Instar, Avalon Red.