Alito Slams Atlantic Piece About SCOTUS Procedural Decision on Texas Abortion Law

Jackson RichmanSep 30th, 2021, 7:06 pm
 

During a speech at the University of Notre Dame on Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito slammed a piece in The Atlantic that criticized the recent decision on the Texas abortion law.

“Here is a line from a recent piece talking about our refusal to grant an injunction in the Texas abortion case: “The conservative majority on the Supreme Court was so eager to nullify Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent securing the right to abortion, that it didn’t even wait for oral arguments,” Alito quoted from a Sept. 2 Atlantic piece by staff writer Adam Serwer about the Supreme Court letting stand for now the Texas law that prohibits abortion – except when the mother’s life is in danger – when a fetus’s heartbeat is detected, usually at the sixth week of pregnancy. It is unenforceable by public officials, but allows people to sue those aiding and abetting an abortion and get up to $10,000 in civil suits.

“Put aside the false and inflammatory claim that we nullified Roe v. Wade,” said Alito. “We did no such thing and we said that expressly in our order.”

Alito cited the following from that Sept. 1 order: “The applicants now before us have raised serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law at issue.”

Alito emphasized, “This order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas’s law.”

Therefore, said Alito, Serwer’s assertion “is flatly wrong and the suggestion that we should’ve held oral argument is ridiculous.”

Serwer responded to Alito and tweeted, “While AS Roma is playing. Truly a shameful talisman of the court’s politicization. More seriously, it’s not often the justices make your point for you. So thanks.”

Watch above, via Notre Dame Law School.

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