Justice Samuel Alito just said out loud what too many people in Washington prefer to dodge: doing the job can come with a real personal price.
For Alito, that price included losing friends after he wrote the Supreme Court opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion policy to the states.
He does not sound apologetic. He sounds like a judge who knew the pressure would be brutal and believed the Constitution still had to come first.
In a preview of his interview with Jan Crawford, CBS News reports that Alito lost friendships over the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
Alito’s response was strikingly matter-of-fact. Controversial cases are part of a justice’s job, he said, and disappointing people is unavoidable when the Court confronts questions that divide the country.
That is a much healthier view of the judiciary than the political version we are constantly sold, where judges are expected to protect one side’s preferred outcome forever. A justice is not supposed to count friends, likes, headlines or invitations before reading the Constitution.
The law comes first. In this climate, even that basic principle can look rebellious.
The cost went far beyond awkward dinner parties.
The Daily Caller reports that Alito described physical threats and harassment directed at judges as a danger to the courts and to public life more broadly. The draft came before the public backlash; once it leaked, the majority could see the security consequences clearly, and Alito says going forward required courage.
The report notes that Alito wrote the majority opinion released in June 2022, while the draft had been leaked the month before. His full CBS interview is scheduled to air as the Court opens its 2026–2027 term.
The leak detonated before the Court formally released its ruling. Protesters descended on the homes of conservative justices, security concerns intensified and an armed man later pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Those are not normal policy disagreements. They are attempts to make judges fear what will happen if they issue the “wrong” ruling.
The Supreme Court said its leak investigators conducted 126 formal interviews, reviewed Court systems and examined printers, devices and communication records. Employees were asked to sign sworn affidavits denying that they disclosed the draft.
Even after that sweep, investigators said they could not identify the person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence. The report also warned that weak information-security practices made the task harder and required tighter handling of sensitive Court materials.
The Marshal’s team said the leak was no simple accident. Investigators concluded it was unlikely that Court computer systems had been penetrated by an outsider.
That mystery still matters. Someone tried to hijack the Court’s process at the exact moment the justices were considering one of the most explosive constitutional questions in decades.
Alito and the majority did not retreat.
The substance of Dobbs is also routinely buried under slogans. The ruling did not create a national abortion ban.
It held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and returned the question to elected lawmakers and voters in the states.
That answer enraged the political class that had treated Roe as untouchable. But precedent is not a magic shield for a ruling the Court concludes was grievously wrong.
Alito’s remarks expose the real test of judicial independence. It is easy to praise courage when a judge gives your side everything it wants.
Courage matters when threats, social punishment and nonstop media fury are all pointed in one direction.
He lost friends. Other justices needed extraordinary security.
The leak remains unsolved.
And the Court still issued its judgment.
The Court refused government by intimidation. That is exactly why justices receive life tenure: so they can answer to the law when the pressure campaign says otherwise.
Read the full Supreme Court ruling here: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up. View the original article here.
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
