Justice Alito Roasts World Leaders Who Objected to His Overturning Roe: Boris Johnson ‘Paid the Price’

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito mocked foreign leaders in a video released Thursday by the University of Notre Dame Law School over their criticisms of his decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and roll back federal abortion protections in the U.S.

Alito took aim at British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who all blasted Alito’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“Over the last few weeks since I had the honor this term of writing, I think the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law,” began Alito, speaking in a speech delivered on July 21 at a Notre Dame Law School conference on religious liberty in Rome.

“One of these was former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But he paid the price,” Alito said to loud laughter.

“Post hoc ergo propter hoc, right?” he added, noting he was only joking. The Latin phrase roughly means, “Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X” – also referred to as the post hoc fallacy.

“But others are still, are still in office. President Macron and Prime Minister Trudeau, I believe, are, too. But what really wounded me, what really wounded me, was when the Duke of Sussex addressed the United Nations and seemed to compare the decision, whose name may not be spoken, with the Russian attack on Ukraine,” Alito added.

Alito was referring to a July 18th speech by Prince Harry, in which he said 2022 has been “a painful year in a painful decade.” Harry then noted the war in Ukraine and “the rolling back of constitutional rights here in the United States” as evidence of the difficulties faced in 2022.

This is not the first political speech Alito has given as he has reputation for being one of the more openly partisan justices on the bench. In 2020, Alito received a bevy of criticism for a speech before the Federalist Society deemed “grievance laden” and “ultra partisan” by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern. In the speech, Alito took aim at some of the hot button issues of the day and railed against “COVID restrictions, same-sex marriage, abortion, and the alleged persecution of conservatives.”

Watch the full speech above