Chris Wallace Asks Breyer About SCOTUS ‘Undoing’ Abortion Rights: ‘Doesn’t That Very Much Shake The Authority Of The Court?’

CNN anchor Chris Wallace challenged retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer about the effect of “undoing” 50 years of abortion rights, asking “doesn’t that very much shake the authority of the court?”

Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace debuted on HBO Max this week, and the first episode features an in-depth interview with Justice Breyer. Wallace spoke about the erosion in public support for the Supreme Court that has coincided with the Court’s effective overturning Roe v. Wade with a 5-4 decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization:

WALLACE: I want to talk to you about public opinion. You like to quote Alexander Hamilton, who said that the court does not have purse like Congress, does not have the sword like the executive. That it depends on public acceptance for its authority. You talked earlier about public opinion. Look at the Gallup poll, which has measured approval of the courts since the year 2000. In July, the month after Dobbs, 43% approved of the way the Supreme Court does its job while 55% disapprove. That’s the most negative margin in the history of the court, worse than right after Bush v. Gore. You talk about social harmony, but when the court undoes a right that people have lived with for half a century, doesn’t that very much shake the authority of the court?

BREYER: If you’re going to be a judge, you do not worry about popularity. You do not worry about what the general public will say by way of public opinion. And if you do that going over a very small edge here, people won’t accept your opinion. They’ll think you’re a group of politicians and there have been some bad days in the history of the court. And I start complaining about the ones that I didn’t like, I think you know what Abraham Lincoln said, when he read Dred Scott. He said, That’s a shocker. And you say did I like this Dobbs decision? Of course I didn’t. Of course I didn’t. Was I happy about it? Not for an instant. Did I do everything I could to persuade people? Of course, of course. But there we are and now we go on. We try to work together. I mean, it’s a little corny, but I think, but I do think it.

Watch above via HBO Max and CNN.